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This article presents reflections by a team working with children and adolescents with multiple handicaps. They aim to build a place for these children in the ordinary places of daily life. Since language and relationships are normal ways of creating exchanges between people, how can children with multiple handicaps be recognized as having their own personalities? How can they be acknowledged when language is absent? The work of this group focuses on enabling children to find their place in society, and on allowing them to participate in the definition of their own needs. How are they seen, and what forms of communication can be used? The article emphasizes the place of the human subject, and discusses specific, multimodal means of communication which help those with multiple handicaps to gain their full status in society.