Case Study: A Child Called It And The Lost Boy

Dylan Jones

Classic Case Study: Dave Pelzer

Child Psychology In the novels A Child Called It and The Lost Boy the author Dave Pelzer, describes in great and horrific detail the abuse, trials, and tribulations he faced while growing up and what he had to do to overcome it all. These novels show very well how the cognitive and physical development affects a child. It was from the ages of four to twelve Dave suffered extreme mental, physical, and verbal abuse from his alcoholic mother. These stories show how a caregiver of a child can affect nearly every part of their development. The abuse for Dave started at the age of four and it is not clear why every reason his mother would hurt him so, however the reader knows she was suffering from

mistrust is that while a child is in its young ages from birth to even two years old they are developing their sense of trust with the world and their caregivers. Once this initial sense of trust is established it is long lasting and often sticks with them for the entirety of their lives. This is shown brilliantly in the first novel. Dave’s terrible abuse did not start until he was four years old, so his initial sense was to trust. Even though his mother did terrible things to her he always had an underlining trust for her. This is shown when he is caught trying to steal a quarter from a pizza shop and buy food with it where he is caught by the cook. The cook speaks with him and then he is soon picked up by a police officer, but when asked why he ran away from home he never gave away everything about his mother, he could have told the police officer everything she has done but he kept quiet and was picked up by his father and they just stated it was a misunderstanding. Also at the very end of the second novel when he is talking with his mother on the phone before leaving for the Air Force, he could have expressed his anger and say how terrible she was but he did

These both show that even against seemingly impossible odds you can still thrive and overcome any hardship and grow into a successful and honorable person. This also shows how much a child’s caregiver and the way they are raised can affect them. Abuse is a very serious issue and going unnoticed can have very harmful