Life with autism is not an easy path

Artem was born as a result of premature amniotic fluid loss and was without water for 14 hours before birth. According to doctors, this could be one of the reasons for his diagnosis. However, the boy developed physically according to the norm, but when he turned 3 years old, he did not start talking. At the same time, the boy's mother noticed that his behavior was different from that of other children: Artem could make some incomprehensible loud sounds, wave his hands, cover his ears when it was loud. So Tetiana (Artem's mother) turned to a pediatric neurologist at the Kherson Regional Hospital, after which the boy was diagnosed with mental and speech developmental delays and prescribed treatment.

Unfortunately, this did not work, as time passed and Artem's behavior changed more and more. After additional consultations at a psychiatric hospital, Artem was diagnosed with early childhood autism. After that, Artem was admitted to the Rehabilitation Center for Children with Disabilities.

"When the great war started, Artem was in the 5th grade. Our hometown of Kakhovka was under occupation from the first day of the full-scale invasion," says Tetiana. "The presence of military equipment and armed occupiers, explosions in our town had a great psychological impact on Artem. That's why we had to leave our home and move with 3 suitcases, in which we invested our entire past life, to the territory controlled by Ukraine."

Now Artem is 14 years old and has completed 7th grade with "excellent" grades. His favorite subjects are English and computer science. He is very kind, gentle, and especially sensitive to the feelings of other children. Artem is very positive and cheerful, he loves horses, swimming and diving in the river, he likes to invent something and build Lego. The boy is interested in biographies of famous people, and still believes in St. Nicholas. But, unfortunately, he has no friends... "I really want him to find himself in this life and for society to accept him, so my son needs constant rehabilitation and work with specialists who help him go through his difficult path. Since I am raising my son alone and cannot afford to pay for Artem's constant rehabilitation, I turned to you for help."