The Reading Level Of A Child Called It By Dave Pelzer Essay

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.

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." (91)

Could mild to severe forms abuse be thought of as just another part of growing up? Throughout childhood people are faced with situations of abusive families or school year bullies that could give them this dose of reality at a young age. In Ann-Marie MacDonald’s ‘Fall on Your Knees’ and Richard Wagamese’s ‘Indian Horse’, the characters face different traumas and forms of abuse. The abuse has different effects on the characters: Materia, Francis, Kathleen, and Saul.

According to Feldman (2015) Urie Bronfenbrenner took more of a biological look at human development, using a system that gave five levels of environment which one is influenced by during the developmental period (The Biological Approach to Development, para 1). We will be looking at the mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem levels to see how David suffered or benefited because of these systems. As Feldman (2015) explains the mesosystem is where the connection between parent and child, or student and teacher influence each other and the relationship between the two people (The Biological Approach to Development, para 3). David encountered many situation where this system may have hurt and helped him. One example would be when he had a

The beginning of the book talks about what it was like before things went horrifyingly wrong. The family took vacations together, his mother was a loving mother and wife, and Dave's father was his hero. This eventually changed, as did everything in Dave's life. His father never turned out to be his hero, but a drunken firefighter who left him, and at times he wished his mother dead. When the torture and abuse began it was minimal, Dave describes it in the book as punishment instead of discipline but as the book progressed so does the intensity. As the story progresses Dave's feelings are expresses, he speaks of his mother, as either "The Bitch" or just "Mother" there is absolutely no love in the way he speaks of her at all. His anger is also expressed and shown in way he talks about his, once beloved hero, his father and his brothers.

A Child Called “It” is written by Dave Pelzer, it is a heart breaking story of one little boy who despite the trials he faced, overcame it all to tell his story. The book is based on him growing up in a home where his mother “selected” him to be her personal slave as he explains. But that was only when it was starting. Now due to his courage, and the bit of faith left inside him, he lives to tell how his experiences have shaped him and to also thank the teachers who selflessly risked their jobs for him that day.

Urie Bronfenbrenner presented his theory of ecological systems in 1979. In his theory, Bronfenbrenner claims that there are four systems that work in concert with one another to affect the behavior of an individual (Lobb, 2016). The four systems that Bronfenbrenner posed were the microsystem, relatable to one’s home, the mesosystem, considered one’s home and school, the exosystem, which are organizations outside of school, and the macrosystem, which involves the government. While the fourth system is not quite present in Craig’s life, the other three are readily recognizable.

There is an element of human nature that compels us to watch when tragedy strikes, like when a car crashes on the side of the road or the news story of a natural disaster hits. It is terrible and sorrowful, but we still watch. It is when the factor of a child is involved that people stop just watching, but instead begin to act. In a similar fashion, when a horror story is told from the mouth of a child, the sheer wrongness and sense of loss is magnified by the guilness nature of children in relating stories. In this way, Vance utilizes a childhood persona in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy to convey aspects of his childhood that were traumatic or revolting without forcing image of a self-pitying victim onto the reader.

I wrote in my journal 2 to 3 days a week, and most all of the entries were the same: me feeling bad for my children because they have fathers that do not help me raise them financially or emotionally, or thinking of the memories I have shared with my children-good and bad, or the worries I have about my children growing up…..until my last journal entry on July 9, 2009, about a young boy named Cody, (whom is a friend

From class we can identify that David suffered from a surplus of risk factors within his family that included two alcoholic parents, an absent parent a majority of the time due to Father’s job as a firefighter, multiple siblings, and strain on the marriage (Block). He also experienced other risk factors from his mother due to her lack of coping mechanisms and the assumption that either something occurred in her past or she suffers from a psychological disorder as the root of the abuse as well as in his community in which he suffered from a lack of community cohesion as well as poor peer relationships (Block). These risk factors all contribute to the length of the abuse in which, the abuse was able to carry on due to the lack of opportunities for intervention from community members or peers. Contradictory to our class learnings in which younger children are put at a higher risk for abuse, David was actually the eldest in his family. Fortunately, David held the protective factor of having a good personality and wit that contributed to his resilience (Block). Throughout the abuse David remained more hopeful than one would expect in the presence of such harsh abuse

Early in PSY 335 lecture, Dr. Felver presented information about Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological theory. Bronfenbrenner believed that a person’s development is greatly affected by environmental factors, which are divided into the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, and the macrosystem. The microsystem is the first level, which is the system closest to the person and with whom there’s direct contact evident.

Urie Bronfenbrenner created an ecological system theory that allows us to see the different aspects in our life that help define who we are as humans and also allows us to see the many different places or people that help us become who we are. Bronfenbrenner’s ecology model is made up of four different systems that are each influenced by different types of environmental stages in our lives. This theory includes the Microsystem, the Mesosystem, the Exosystem, and the Macrosystem. The Microsystem is the first and most direct experiences that we have in our lives. People like our closest family members, teachers, neighbors and peers belong into our Microsystem. Our most direct social interactions are with the people that we are most close to,

It was not until this period, that I could play games like marbles where you follow a set of rule and take turns. Erikson argues that the psychosocial dimension that surfaces during this period has a “sense of industry at one extreme and a sense of inferiority at the other” (Elkind, 1970). This developmental milestone can however be truncated by trauma. Brain regions have distinctive windows of susceptibility to traumatic stress (Andersen et al., 2008). Stress has been identified as a key experiential factor that programs and modifies brain development (Andersen et al., 2008; Teicher, Tomoda, & Andersen, 2006). In this way child abuse is linked to significantly higher rates of serious depression and other psychiatric disorders during childhood and in adult-hood (Kaufman, Plotsky, Nemeroff, & Charney,

    There are many different forms of child abuse. In “A Child Called It” Dave suffers many different kinds of extreme abuse. Child Abuse can be physical, emotional , psychological and neglect.  Kids that are abused are 25% more likely to have mental health issues.  Statically that means 1.8 million children that were abused are going to suffer from a mental health issue.  One out of four kids are going to suffer for a circumstances which they where they were helpless in. According to Victor Carrion a professor at the University of Stanford says "Children experiencing four types of trauma were 30 times more likely to have behavior and learning problems than those not exposed to trauma." As well as these kids suffering from a mental illness, 30% are more likely they will also suffer a learning disability too. Imagine going to school depressed and your mind is

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."