The nature of the relationship between the handicapped child's stimulus characteristics and the expectation held for that child by child care professionals provided the focus of this study. One hundred and twenty subjects viewed photographic slides of 30 children with differing facial characteristics and estimated the capabilities of the photographed children. Subjects represented three types of child care preparation programs -- special education, nursing, and child development -- and a comparison group of non-child care students. Slides had been previously rated for the physical attractiveness of the photographed child, the presence of clinical manifestation of dysfunction, and the quality of the photographic reproduction. Subjects were randomly presented with slides classified as attractive/normal, unattractive/normal, attractive/abnormal, unattractive/abnormal, and pre- and post-operative slides of children with craniofacial anomalies. Information relating to the experience of self-reported personal characteristics of the subjects also was obtained. Analysis of the data revealed that the attractiveness of the child plays a significant role in the judgment of functional capabilities, made from photos, for all subject groups. Children with unattractive faces were consistently scored lower in functional capability than children with attractive faces. Judgments of subject groups were equivalent. Self-reported characteristics of the subjects were not significantly related to their ratings of children's appearance and intelligence. (Author/RH)