Child Abuse Case In Daly City, California By Dave Pelzer

This story is about a prolonged child abuse case in Daly City, California written by Dave Pelzer. The abused child, age six through 12 years old in the story is Dave Pelzer himself. During Dave’s middle childhood development, the ecological systems described by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model did not link or communicate to support his development. Piaget’s explanation of the cognitive development placed Dave straddling between the pre-operational and the concrete operational stages. Dave’s behavior linked him to Kohlberg’s pre-conventional and conventional morality levels. The interaction between Bronfenbrenner, Piaget and Kohlberg theories on Dave’s abuse experience support the fact that middle childhood experiences affect one’s long-term

Pelzer (1995) explains that Dave locks his concentration looking at the clock hands, “the second hand seemed to creep ever so slowly” (p. 43), or counting to himself, “I began to count to myself, trying to concentrate” (p. 55), taking his mind away from the situation. He pays attention to the clock hands while his mother was trying to burn him with the stove and started counting to himself when she wipes a dirty diaper on his face. The clock and counting to himself techniques at decentering help him to plan how to avoid the abuse. For instance, when his mother tries to sit him on the top of the stove Dave knew because of the clock that his brother Ron was soon coming home, so he started asking her whining questions to distract her and buy time until Ron arrived home (Pelzer, 1995, p. 42). During the beginning of fifth grade, Dave says “I held my tears, refusing to cry because I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of my defeat” (Pelzer, 1995, p. 132). Dave’s thoughts and control of his behavior tell us that his mental age is different from his chronological age of nine or ten. Dave’s thoughts are less egocentric and can actually consider options to anticipate and deal with the punishment. Waibel-Duncan and Yarnell (2011) agree that Dave learned to control his actions and to anticipate the punishment; for example, when Pelzer wrote, “I had not yet reached my 11th birthday, but for the most part, I knew what forms of punishment to expect . . . and I could anticipate what she might do next” (p.