"Trying to Break Through"

What do you see when you look at the image below? Many of you may just see an image of a boy who has been fingerpainting!

As the parent of a child with special needs I see something very different, actually that's wrong, I FEEL something very different when I look at this.

This is a portrait I took of my grandson during some finger painting fun, and while he is not a special needs child, to me this image so clearly represents the struggle that my youngest son, who has Asperger's has been going through since he was this age, and possibly what other children on the spectrum, or with other disabilities may be feeling at times.

I imagine the child in this image being trapped behind invisible walls, separated from the world around him. He tries to break through the walls often, sometimes managing to find an opening. But then the reality of the world causes him pain, emotional stress, tension, uncertainty and fear and he withdraws back into the safety of his mind.....his invisible wall.

That is what I see when I look at this, maybe because I do have a son with Asperger's that I have been watching for years trying to be like everyone else. Venturing out to join in, either through groups for children, like Boy Scouts, or through individual friendships, simply trying to be "just a boy". And so many times I see him hurt, most often because although he looks like any other kid, and he is smart and funny, his social skills always seem to get in the way of allowing him to be what he wants most.

Just another kid.