Raising a 'special' child

Over the weekend, I had an opportunity to visit some relatives. At one such place, something I witnessed touched very deeply into my heart - raising a 'special' child is not an easy task. These particular parents have only one child and she is suffering from a mild down's syndrome. One look at the child and it would be difficult to identify her as a normal child. She's 5 plus now, but does not have the grasp of language as any 5 year old would already possess; and her manner of movement and alking is not normal either. Although I have visited this family many times before, this visit has left me with a few question marks. Why has she been born that way? What sort of future will such a child be facing, if her conditions do not improve and she is unable to join the mainstream society? What ordeal must the child's parents be going through to have an only child with such a complication?    
That much that I can gauge from my several minutes at their home, the parents are still in their denial stage that there is something abnormal about their child.  I also found that the mother, by way practice, I suppose, always complementing through her own interpretation every word that the child tries to utter. Will this help the child? Personally, I think it will not. The parents should seek the right help for the child at the right place. All said, it struck me that I would be doing exactly what the parents were doing, because no parents would want their child to look bad in a stranger's eye.
My heart goes out to the child and I pray that her conditions improve, and that she can lead a normal life.