David Pelzer's A Child Called It

A child called “It” is a book about a child’s experience throughout the both physical and emotional abuse his mother put him through; additionally, the book allows us the reader to look into what exactly it takes to survive when you have no hope. Today I will be looking into this book to show how it can be linked to; Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Model, Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development, and Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Reasoning. In doing so I will be giving examples from the book to correspond with each theory. These examples will be from David Pelzer’s, the author’s, life while he lived with his mother.

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Model

Throughout David Pelzer’s life there were times in which his ecological system could

The schools that David went to would often ignore clear signs of starvation and neglect and would often punish David; however, never to the extent of David’s mother Catherine. Eventually after David being stabbed followed procedure and called for the police to take action. Another time I would like to look into are the multiple failings of neighbor kids and neighbor parents. Neighbor kids, friends of David’s brothers, would often see David in unusual punishments. Punishments including David having to lay under cold water for many hours. The neighbor kids just accepted these punishments as they were, and came to never question them after one showing. David recalls a neighbor adult to whom would often treat him with care and compassion. Catherine, his mother, during this time she was cruel to David. However, if their neighbor Shirley was around Catherine returned to being a loving, caring mother that she was from when David was younger. Shirley after befriending Catherine for months asked why David was not allowed to play with the other children. Catherine had many excuses but eventually she told Shirley it was because David was a ‘bad boy’. Soon after Shirley stopped spending time with the Pelzer

I say this because David showed signs of thinking of multiple outcomes and outweighing which consequence was the worst. This is a clear definition of stage three which is “good intentions as determined by social consequences” (wiki). An example of David examining his mother actions and reactions is when David decides he will no longer cry because that is what his mother desires and he wishes to not give her what she wants (403). Another example of David showing signs of stage three development are his morality actions. These being when he decides he does not care if he is caught, he does not care about being a ‘bad boy’ he will eat to survive