Bailey Oxner paints as her mother, Marisa, looks on at their home recently. JOHN FLETCHER/JFLETCHER@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM
A special
talent
Bailey Oxner may face challenges as a child with Asperger’s, but in painting she’s found her niche 22
By Paul Clark, WNC Parent contributor
Parenting a special needs child is challenging, but in Bailey Sloan Oxner’s case, it’s made easier by the special talent she has for painting, her parents say. Painting has not only brought this 14-year-old attention and awards. It has also served as a way of calming the anger and anxiety that go along with her autism. “I don’t paint when I’m mad anymore,” Bailey said, sitting with her parents in their South Asheville home. “I’m afraid I’ll destroy the painting.” A freshman in life and occupational skills at Reynolds High School, Bailey has always been strong willed, mother Marisa Oxner said. But that stubbornness seemed out of place by the time she was 4, so her parents had her tested. Doctors diagnosed her as having Asperger syndrome, a type of autism that, as her mother describes it, affects a person’s ability to process
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