Help 500 children with disabilities in Kharkov

My little sunshine, my son Kirill, is 3 years and 2 months old.  He is a wonderful, long-awaited child, who is very much loved.  We spend virtually all our time with him – we play, read, go for walks.  When Kiryusha was around one, I started to realize that he was quite a special kid, we encountered many difficulties.  The thing is that his way of thinking is a little different from what is generally considered “normal”.  Because of this, communication with his peers is complicated for him.  It’s hard for him to “read” social signals; he does not copy adults’ behavior, like other children do.  It is difficult for him to adapt to changes, his anxiety level is higher than average, he has unusual fears.  So we really have to learn to communicate.  For example, a simple catch-up-  or a ball game make a complicated task for us.

 However, we try to manage all the challenges with the help of specialists, patience, optimism, and, most importantly, enormous love for our child.  In cooperation with professionals, we regularly analyze the obstacles we face and decide how to help Kiryusha in this or that situation.

 It is often hard for us to understand Kirill.  We have to “decipher” his words, find out what caused his anxiety and why it happened.  Sometimes it turns into a real detective riddle, and puzzling it out becomes exciting and interesting.  There are situations, when understanding him literally is not a way out - his words seem to make no sense and be absurd.

 Thus, as Kiryusha bathes and sees a little rabbit on a shampoo bottle, he says “I want to offend the rabbit”.  Why offend?  I don’t understand.  Why does my child want to offend everyone?   Even a little rabbit on the shampoo bottle.  Can it really provoke negative emotions?  In reality, the word “offend” has several absolutely different meanings for Kiryusha, depending on the situation.  He just begins to talk, and his speech abilities are still too scarce to express all his feelings and thoughts.  And when Kiryusha says something unusual, I just have to understand him and suggest him a more suitable variant, understandable by others.

 Then both he feels he is understood, and people around him can get him better.  And if I can’t figure out the situation right away, I can write it down and think it over later, or what’s even better, discuss it with a specialist.

 Today we have already reached a lot, we have significantly improved our communication with Kirill.  Nothing brings as much joy to the parents, as achievements of their child, his smile and happiness.

 Anna Alexeenko, Kirill’s mother