One Child
Encyclopedia
One Child is a book written by American author and psychologist
Torey Hayden
. It was first published in the United States
in 1980. This book has been translated into 27 languages and dramatized as an interactive opera. In 1994, the story was adapted as a made-for-television movie
on Lifetime), entitled "Untamed Love" and starring Cathy Lee Crosby
.
The book opens with Hayden, a special education teacher, reading a newspaper article about a six-year-old girl who attempted to burn a three-year-old boy a couple of days prior, but was discovered before the boy was killed. As there was no place for her at the hospital, she ended up as a student in Torey's class, where she remains for about five months.
The material behind this book is based on the author's experiences. A sequel, The Tiger's Child, was published in 1995.
class. Her teaching assistant is a Mexican
migrant worker named Anton who didn't finish high school.
The students at the beginning of the year are as follows:
At age 4, Sheila's then-18-year-old
mother left and took Sheila and 2-year-old brother Jimmie with her; however, on the highway, Sheila's mother opened the door and pushed Sheila out, leaving her behind
. Since then, Sheila has lived in poverty
with her neglectful and verbally abusive father. When she joined Torey's class, Sheila's father did not have enough money to get water to wash themselves or the one set of clothes Sheila owned. Thus, she came to school dirty and smelly every day.
Sheila joins the group just after Christmas
vacation. At first, she refuses to participate in the class and refuses to speak to anyone. She stays sitting in one chair. On her first day of school, at lunch, Sheila takes all of the goldfish
from the aquarium and stabs their eyes out with a pencil. Torey and Whitney, a 14-year-old girl who assists the class, chase Sheila into the gymnasium
, and Torey eventually soothes the terrified girl into coming back to class.
After a few days, Sheila and Torey begin to trust one another, and Torey takes to giving her a bath
every morning so her smell doesn't distract the other students.
After Sheila began participating in class, there were still a few issues. First, she was focused on revenge
. At one point, a teacher scolded her in the lunch room, so she went into the teacher's room and caused $700 worth of damage to the classroom. Also, Sheila refuses to do paper work. However, when given other mediums to work with (stacking blocks, for instance), she reveals that she is incredibly smart and talented for someone who only had a few months of first-grade; her I.Q.
is later tested, and comes to a total of 184, which is, according to Torey, around 1 in 10,000 for a six-year-old. Sheila remains obsessed with showing people that she is worthwhile, and terrified of abandonment.
At one point, Torey goes to California
for a few days for a conference. The students were given plenty of warning, but Sheila interpreted it as abandonment by the one person who had shown her love, and misbehaved through the whole trip.
In the middle of the year, Torey is notified that a space has opened up at the state hospital for Sheila. Torey is horrified, seeing that this girl with all her improvement should not be put into an institution. They bring the case to court, with the help of Torey's boyfriend Chad, a lawyer
, and win. Afterwards, Torey and Chad take Sheila out for pizza
and buy her a dress.
One day, Sheila comes to school looking pale and nervous. She uses the bathroom twice in the first half-hour. Torey takes Sheila on her lap, and then notices she's bleeding. Sheila eventually confesses that her uncle Jerry had tried to rape
her, and when she was too small, he cut her with his knife. Sheila is rushed to the hospital
after losing a lot of blood and has to have surgery to repair the damage. In the 1995 sequel, The Tiger's Child, it is revealed that because of this incident, Sheila is infertile. Sheila deals with the traumatic experience remarkably well, though she refuses to wear dresses for a while afterward.
At the end of the year, Torey introduces Sheila to next year's teacher. Sheila will be going into third grade
, because Torey feels she can deal with the harder material and that it's more important at this point that Sheila's teacher be loving and understanding. Torey knows this teacher personally and knows she would be.
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
Torey Hayden
Torey Hayden
Victoria Lynn Hayden, known as Torey L. Hayden , is a female child psychologist, special education teacher, university lecturer and writer of non-fiction books based on her real-life experiences with teaching and counseling children with special needs.Subjects covered in her books include autism,...
. It was first published in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1980. This book has been translated into 27 languages and dramatized as an interactive opera. In 1994, the story was adapted as a made-for-television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
on Lifetime), entitled "Untamed Love" and starring Cathy Lee Crosby
Cathy Lee Crosby
Cathy Lee Crosby is an American actress. She achieved TV and film success in the 1980s and was a co-host of the television series That's Incredible!. -Personal life:...
.
The book opens with Hayden, a special education teacher, reading a newspaper article about a six-year-old girl who attempted to burn a three-year-old boy a couple of days prior, but was discovered before the boy was killed. As there was no place for her at the hospital, she ended up as a student in Torey's class, where she remains for about five months.
The material behind this book is based on the author's experiences. A sequel, The Tiger's Child, was published in 1995.
Summary
At the beginning of the year, Torey is given a long, narrow, carpeted classroom with a single window at the end – very inconvenient for a special educationSpecial education
Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...
class. Her teaching assistant is a Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
migrant worker named Anton who didn't finish high school.
The students at the beginning of the year are as follows:
- Peter, 8, who has seizures and aggressive behavior caused by a neurological condition
- Tyler, 8, suicidal
- Max, 6, autisticAutismAutism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
- Freddie, 7, obeseChildhood obesityChildhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or wellbeing. As methods to determine body fat directly are difficult, the diagnosis of obesity is often based on BMI. Due to the rising prevalence of obesity in children and its many adverse health effects...
and profoundly mentally retardedMental retardationMental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors... - Sarah, 7, angry, defiant and selectively muteSelective mutismSelective mutism is an anxiety disorder in which a person, most often a child, who is normally capable of speech is unable to speak in given situations, or to specific people...
because of physicalPhysical abusePhysical abuse is abuse involving contact intended to cause feelings of intimidation, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm.-Forms of physical abuse:*Striking*Punching*Belting*Pushing, pulling*Slapping*Whipping*Striking with an object...
and sexual abuseChild sexual abuseChild sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
by her father - Susannah Joy, 6, schizophrenicSchizophreniaSchizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
- William, 9, OCDObsessive-compulsive disorderObsessive–compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety, or by a combination of such obsessions and compulsions...
with phobiaPhobiaA phobia is a type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding, typically disproportional to the actual danger posed, often being recognized as irrational...
s of water, darkness, cars, vacuum cleaners, and dust - Guillermo, 9, blindBlindnessBlindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
, but he's in this class because the normal blind classes were unprepared to handle his aggressive behavior
At age 4, Sheila's then-18-year-old
Teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy is a pregnancy of a female under the age of 20 when the pregnancy ends. It generally refers to a female who is unmarried and usually refers to an unplanned pregnancy...
mother left and took Sheila and 2-year-old brother Jimmie with her; however, on the highway, Sheila's mother opened the door and pushed Sheila out, leaving her behind
Child abandonment
Child abandonment is the practice of relinquishing interests and claims over one's offspring with the intent of never again resuming or reasserting them. Causes include many social and cultural factors as well as mental illness. An abandoned child is called a foundling .-Causes:Poverty is often a...
. Since then, Sheila has lived in poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
with her neglectful and verbally abusive father. When she joined Torey's class, Sheila's father did not have enough money to get water to wash themselves or the one set of clothes Sheila owned. Thus, she came to school dirty and smelly every day.
Sheila joins the group just after Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
vacation. At first, she refuses to participate in the class and refuses to speak to anyone. She stays sitting in one chair. On her first day of school, at lunch, Sheila takes all of the goldfish
Goldfish
The goldfish is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of order Cypriniformes. It was one of the earliest fish to be domesticated, and is one of the most commonly kept aquarium fish....
from the aquarium and stabs their eyes out with a pencil. Torey and Whitney, a 14-year-old girl who assists the class, chase Sheila into the gymnasium
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
, and Torey eventually soothes the terrified girl into coming back to class.
After a few days, Sheila and Torey begin to trust one another, and Torey takes to giving her a bath
Bathing
Bathing is the washing or cleansing of the body in a fluid, usually water or an aqueous solution. It may be practised for personal hygiene, religious ritual or therapeutic purposes or as a recreational activity....
every morning so her smell doesn't distract the other students.
After Sheila began participating in class, there were still a few issues. First, she was focused on revenge
Revenge
Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. It is also called payback, retribution, retaliation or vengeance; it may be characterized, justly or unjustly, as a form of justice.-Function in society:Some societies believe that the...
. At one point, a teacher scolded her in the lunch room, so she went into the teacher's room and caused $700 worth of damage to the classroom. Also, Sheila refuses to do paper work. However, when given other mediums to work with (stacking blocks, for instance), she reveals that she is incredibly smart and talented for someone who only had a few months of first-grade; her I.Q.
Intelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...
is later tested, and comes to a total of 184, which is, according to Torey, around 1 in 10,000 for a six-year-old. Sheila remains obsessed with showing people that she is worthwhile, and terrified of abandonment.
At one point, Torey goes to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
for a few days for a conference. The students were given plenty of warning, but Sheila interpreted it as abandonment by the one person who had shown her love, and misbehaved through the whole trip.
In the middle of the year, Torey is notified that a space has opened up at the state hospital for Sheila. Torey is horrified, seeing that this girl with all her improvement should not be put into an institution. They bring the case to court, with the help of Torey's boyfriend Chad, a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, and win. Afterwards, Torey and Chad take Sheila out for pizza
Pizza
Pizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings.Originating in Italy, from the Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria"...
and buy her a dress.
One day, Sheila comes to school looking pale and nervous. She uses the bathroom twice in the first half-hour. Torey takes Sheila on her lap, and then notices she's bleeding. Sheila eventually confesses that her uncle Jerry had tried to rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
her, and when she was too small, he cut her with his knife. Sheila is rushed to the hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
after losing a lot of blood and has to have surgery to repair the damage. In the 1995 sequel, The Tiger's Child, it is revealed that because of this incident, Sheila is infertile. Sheila deals with the traumatic experience remarkably well, though she refuses to wear dresses for a while afterward.
At the end of the year, Torey introduces Sheila to next year's teacher. Sheila will be going into third grade
Third grade
In the United States, third grade is a year of primary education. It is the third school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 8 – 9 years old, depending on when their birthday occurs....
, because Torey feels she can deal with the harder material and that it's more important at this point that Sheila's teacher be loving and understanding. Torey knows this teacher personally and knows she would be.