Wan creates a painting in the company of his parents. [Photo/hz66/com]

Untouchable pain

These families suffer from a sort of "untouched pain", according to Wan Lihua.

When parents have a baby who is hurting, it's only natural to want to hold them and comfort them. But unfortunately, that type of affection will actually cause the baby more pain.

For Wan Lihua, it's even worse.

Wan Nian was diagnosed with autism at the age of 8, after being kept from other people for so long.

"I had to protect him from getting hurt, because even a playful fight between children could have killed him," Wan Lihua said.

For some time, Wan Nian was allowed to attend kindergarten as ordinary children, but he was forced to drop out of school before long, as his appearance, with his whole body wrapped in cloth, gave the parents of other children the impression that the disease was contagious.

A new chapter

During Wan Nian's stay at home, armed with nothing more than a tablet, he learned how to surf the internet and taught himself pinyin, and then began to draw pictures of the places he had been to and the pictures he had seen on his computer.

"He had a good command of colors, lines and details," Wan Lihua said.

It was not until 2021 that Wan Lihua returned to her parents' home in Huzhou's Anji county and happened to learned that there was a public special education school in her hometown for children with intellectual disabilities.

The school opened a new chapter in Wan Nian's life. On schooldays, he usually attends classes in the morning and paints pictures in the afternoon.

His gift is his use of light, as a lot of his works have brought surprises to people.

In addition, while at school, the autistic boy talks and smiles more than before, according to Wan Lihua.

On June 1, paintings created by Wan Nian were put on exhibition by the school, and are expected to be displayed at Anji Library, where more people will see them.

"Wan Nian's talent in painting and handicrafts is as worthy of exploration as that of ordinary children, so we are thinking of giving more opportunities to children like him," said Dai Haixiang, the school's principal and curator of the exhibition.

In January, the State Council, China's Cabinet, unveiled an action plan to facilitate the development of special education during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period.

"Give every child with disabilities the chance to excel in life," reads one sentence in the document.