Summary Of One Child By Torey Hayden

A Little Girl gets a Chance at a New Life

In Torey Hayden's book, One Child, I met a child named Sheila. Sheila was a sad, abused, emotionally disturbed, and broken little girl. Six year old Sheila was headed for an empty life with a future in a state mental institution when she landed, by chance, in Torey Hayden's special education class. Sheila was headed for the mental institution as a last resort. She had been in and out of placement in schools, and had made no improvement.

The breaking point for little Sheila's future happened when Sheila kidnapped a toddler in her neighborhood, and tied the little boy to a tree. Mercilessly, Sheila set fire to the child and watched him burn until someone came to his rescue. The little
Over time and with much hard work, Torey Hayden was able to create a bond with Sheila and earned her trust. Sheila began to open up to Torey more and more as their relationship grew. Sheila stayed with Torey after school everyday until the High School bus that took her back to her tenement home came to take her back. During the time that she spent after school, Torey gave her one on one attention, as much as her fragile mental state would allow. Gradually, Sheila could stand more attention and stimulation. Before long, they had sprouted a slowly growing friendship. Torey brought clothes and toiletries to school. Before school began, Torey would change Sheila into clean clothes, brush and style her hair, and have her brush her teeth. This new image gave Sheila a brand-new confidence in herself. She became more outgoing in class. After school, Torey would bathe Sheila in the sink and make sure she brushed her teeth again, before changing her back into her filthy clothes, and taking the barrettes out of her hair. Sheila was terrified that if she took these items home, her father would punish her for stealing. By the time the school year was coming to an end, Torey and Sheila had such a strong bond that Sheila wished that Torey could be her mother, and that her whole life would've been
At this stage, children do not think in an operational way, but concepts of mental reasoning began to develop. Sheila learns that positive actions bring positive reactions and negative actions bring negative reactions. With her new found trust in Torey, Sheila is able to move on to Erikson's Autonomy versus Guilt stage and Initiative versus Guilt stage simultaneously. Sheila finds that very good things come from being good and that any chastisement or punishment is fair and deserved. Torey handled Sheila very carefully. Over time, Torey learned to read Sheila very well. If Sheila began to lose control, Torey would demand that she sit in time out until she had recovered her senses. If she was having a particularly bad day, Torey would take her somewhere private and have one on one time with Sheila sitting on her lap, and talking it out with her, leaving the other children in the care of her aid. Torey also demanded that Sheila participate in the class, which Sheila fought throughout her story. Torey pushed Sheila just enough to help her without hurting her further. It was a very delicate balance with Sheila. She was so brilliantly intelligent, but at the same time, so drastically damaged emotionally. When Sheila reaches this cognitive point, she is able to further develop her new understanding of life, others, and the world around