A Child Called It By Dave Pelzer

The Book A Child Called “It” written by Dave Pelzer who survived one of the most severe child abuse cases in history. He wrote about his life from the beginning when family life was good, and throughout the abusive years, until he was finally rescued. Before kindergarten Dave remembers his life being happy. He stated in the book that, “"My family was the 'Brady Bunch ' of the 1960s. My two brothers and I were blessed with the perfect parents. Our every whim was fulfilled with love and care." But in the years after that he faced unimaginable pain and abuse mentally and physically.

This paper evaluates how David Pelzer develops in his memoir, A Child Called “It”. Pelzer is evaluated using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model demonstrates how Pelzer’s environment impacted his development greatly. Pelzer is greatly influenced through others by how they treat him. Throughout this memoir, Pelzer is in the concrete operations stage of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. The reader is also able to see Pelzer’s development from preconventional morality to conventional morality using Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning.

Although the reading level of A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer wasn’t difficult, processing the horror of the events that inspired the story was. People who experience traumatic situations can often recall the events with sharp clarity, which is exactly what Pelzer did. Riddled with grim details, the text takes readers on a journey through Dave Pelzer’s troubled early years. Through his meticulously documented experiences, readers get a perfect view into the torture that shaped his childhood. Although painful, the descriptions give students the opportunity to make observations and apply different approaches about development to Pelzer’s harrowing tale.

Abuse and neglect comes in all different forms and each one of them are as equally as damaging as the next. Others will agree that abuse and neglect are hard to define in some cases, but there are clues and signs that professionals and nonprofessionals can detect in a child if they just pay attention. Being observant isn’t the only key to saving these children, but also being willing to speak up and tell someone what you know and or saw. In “A Child Called It”, David Pelzer is a young boy who goes through horrendous abuse and neglect who might have been able to endure much less pain if one adult would have spoken up, despite the fear of any consequences. There is a disgusting number of examples of abuse and neglect in this book, but there will be three different experiences that will showcase neglect, psychological abuse, and physical abuse discussed in the rest of this text.

As a child Dave Pelzer was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother; a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games that left one of her sons nearly dead. She no longer considered him a son, but a slave; no longer a boy, but an 'it'. His bed was an old army cot in the basement, his clothes were torn and smelly, and when he was allowed the luxury of food it was scraps from the dogs' bowl. The outside world knew nothing of the nightmare played out behind closed doors. Dave dreamed of finding a family to love him and call him their son. It took years of struggle, deprivation and despair to find his dreams and make something of himself. A Child Called 'It' covers the early years of

In 1995, David Pelzer wrote a book describing his childhood, a book that is highly recommend as a must read. The book starts off with a happy home and quickly turns into his very own nightmare. Pelzer is a survivor of child abuse. This story is so nauseating that while reading it you find found yourself praying that his parents would rot in hell for all eternity.

Through his experiences, Dave Pelzer struggle to find his self-existences and self-worth as a human being. The struggle for self-existence and self-worth is depicted in his novels A Child Called “It” and The Lost Boy. The two novels discuss about the autobiography of Dave Pelzer. The autobiography of Dave Pelzer‘s life highlights issues concerning the youth. His novels, A Child Called “It” and The Lost Boy demonstrated the awareness of abuse and mistreatment in the homes of family members and sometimes non-family related members. Pelzer‘s story is not the first of many stories to depict a child trying to survive in a home where there is many afflicted injuries. In other words, the afflicted injuries represented abuse. The work of Pelzer suggests

The definition of abuse is when someone uses cruel and violent treatment to negatively affect a person repeatedly. Abuse can come in a variety of ways, such as psychological abuse, mental abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and one of the most common yet overlooked is sexual abuse. In the book A Child Called IT, David Pelzer writes the story of his childhood. A child whose whole life was surrounded by abuse, his mother would beat him and hurt him in such a way that she left him almost dead in several occasions. Sharon olds wrote a series of poems that all seemed to link up together after reading them consecutively. I go back to May 1937 is dealing with changing her existence, Little things is about focusing on enjoying small things,

The Child Called “It”, a book by David James Pelzer is a story of Dave's horrible childhood. Born December 29, 1960 in Daly City, California, David's life was wonderful; until, his mother started to drink. David's story is one of mistreatment and perseverance through tough times. Dave is now 56 years old and speaks to troops and other person's as a motivational speaker. It is his life’s goal to help others persevere through tough times.

A Child Called It, is an astonishingly horrific true story of “one child’s courage to survive”. Once said “Such a story cannot fail to move.” this is exactly how I felt about this book. Dave Pelzer the author and protagonist of A Child Called It tells the story of his life as one of the worst seen cases of child abuse in the state of California. Dave’s mental strength and resilience is what truly drives the theme of the story and the physical and mental abuse that he had to endure.

Unfortunately, there are children everywhere who endure a form of abuse. Some experience emotional abuse while others experience physical abuse. Other children, like Dave Pelzer, are faced with both. Dave had to grow up in a family of two alcoholic parents. He was severely beaten and tortured by his mother and was neglected by his father. Dave had to spend his childhood in fear of his life. Although sad, his story gives others hope that they too can experience an abusive childhood and live to tell about it.

The book A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer is a memoir of his abusive childhood. Dave in the story called David was the second child out of 3 to his mother and father. Pelzer starts the book of that moment when he was rescued from the abusive household he lived in. The rest of the book starts from his earliest memories of when his family was happy. They would go on vacations, eat well together, and enjoyed each other's presence.

INTRODUCTION: “Child Abuse occurs when a parent or a care taker physically, emotionally, or sexually mistreats or neglects a child resulting in the physical, emotional, or sexual harm or imminent risk of harm or exploitation, or in extreme cases the death of a child,” child abuse is a big deal because in today’s society many children face abuse, there are many effects and reasons as to why a child may be abuse.

Child abuse consists of any act or failure to act that endangers a child’s physical or emotional health and development. A person caring for a child is abusive if he or she fails to nurture the child, physically injures the child, or relates sexually to the child (Robins). Child abuse is broken down into four major categories: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. Aside from the abuse itself, the cost of the tragic events costs the United States billions of dollars each year. Every day, approximately 4 children in the United States die resulting from child abuse and the majority are under 5-years-old (Fromm). There are many organizations that promote preventative measures in reducing child abuse. If nothing is done,

A Child Called 'It' is a first-person narrative of a severely abused child who has survived to tell his tale. Dave Pelzer tells his story to help others heal from the trauma of the past. You may remember that in training we emphasize how many abused and neglected children remain so attached to their families that they want to live with them at any cost. This was not Dave Pelzer's experience. He grew to hate his mother for singling him out for systematic torture. His anger helped him survive: "I wanted to show The Bitch that she could beat me only if I died, and I was determined not to give in, even to death." Perhaps the security of his early years helped Dave develop enough resilience to survive the abuse and grow up to be an emotionally healthy adult with a child of his own. As he writes: "The challenges of my past have made me immensely strong inside… I have a vast appreciation for things that others may take for granted… My blessings also mean having the opportunity to meet so many people who had a positive impact on my life. The endless sea of faces, prodding me, teaching me to make the right choices, and helping me in my quest for success."