Sean Reynolds

Prof. Keller EDU 3820

One Child
This is an observation report on Sheila, a six year old girl who has been waiting
for placement in a state hospital after purposely burning a three year old boy. This
observation begins in January after Sheila has been placed in Torey Haydens special
education class while awaiting a vacancy in the hospital and concludes at the end of the
school year.
Sheila comes from a troubled and dysfunctional family. At age four she was
abandon on the side of the road by her then eighteen year old mother. Oddly her mother
did not abandon her younger brother and took him to California. She currently lives with
her father, who is an alcoholic and has shown to be physically, verbally and emotionally
abusive. He was not around during Sheilas early years due to being imprisoned for
assault and battery. He also did a stint in the state hospital for alcoholism and drugs.
Sheilas living conditions are very poor, she lives with her father in a one room shack
with no heat, plumbing or electricity. As of the first day of school, she has received no
positive parental influence in her life but only negative abusive treatment. Sheilas uncle,
it was later learned also sexually and physically abused her, there seems to be no adult
members of her family that have not abused Sheila in some way.
This observation begins on the first day of class in January. Sheilas initial
reaction to her new classroom environment was very bad. She shows no emotion and is
unresponsive and wanted to remain isolated. She was resistant to everything including
school work and a tour of the classroom, every interaction is a battle. Being in control is

an issue for her and is defiant of every request from the teacher. Sheila is also exhibiting
very destructive tendencies that show no bounds. She has destroyed the goldfish,
students property and even her own work. These behaviors were present prior to arriving
at school, she was caught setting fires and had three encounters with the police. Sheila
has also conducted numerous acts of violence towards adults and other students. Her
reactions to be threatened or cornered are animalistic in nature. Sheila is untrusting of
everyone and uses confrontation as a coping mechanism.
Sheilas physical appearance is unhealthy. She is very skinny and appears to suffer
of malnutrition. There are numerous scars and healed fractures probably from abuse. She
has poor hygiene and wears urine stained clothing to school. Sheilas poor hygiene and
appearance can be attributed to the lack of a responsible and caring adult at home. She
constantly draws into herself by hugging her knees and hunching up. She also wets the
bed, this is probably secondary bed wetting that can be caused by emotional problems
such as stressful home life or abuse. Thumb sucking is also a compulsive habit shown
usually when she feels threatened.
Cognitively, she appears to have no signs of brain damage or autism. Sheila seems
to be very intelligent for her age but has used this high level of intelligence and
perception for disruptive means. She is able to manipulate people and situations, using
this intelligence to perhaps make her existence more tolerable. Making herself
objectionable is a possible reaction to being uncared for and unloved a more acceptable
reality. This level of thinking although mainly used for survival shows great potential for
learning.
After observing Sheila for a week there have been some noticeable improvements

in her performance and behavior. Sheila was slow to warm, initially not speaking to
anyone but now she is becoming more talkative. She only speaks to adults in the
classroom. Sheila has unusual grammar or an dissymmetric dialect. The teacher who has
shown some cultural competency by knowing that this is not a local dialect. This unusual
speech pattern needs to be investigated further. Sheila has started to participate in class
when coaxed but this happens infrequently. Initially resistant to doing math work, Sheila
has begun working with the math manipulatives and has shown excellent math skills. A
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test was given to her and the results were off the charts,
Sheila potentially is a truly gifted child. There have been other noticeable positive
accomplishments such as Sheila smiling and raising her hand to participate in class for
the first time, both of these behaviors appearing for the first time as she adjusts to her
new environment.
Although Sheila has demonstrated significant improvements in some areas over
the first week of class, many problems still persist. Outbursts of kicking and screaming
are still occurring causing a disruption in the classroom among other emotionally fragile
students. She is unsure how to respond to kind gestures toward her and has difficulty
trusting anyone. Sheilas high intelligence and behavioral problems makes her twice
exceptional which can make the teachers job more difficult as they have to decide what
to address. In Sheila case, the teacher has seemed to focus more on the behavioral aspect
thus far. Being twice exceptional can also isolate her from peers and making friendships
more difficult. Her hygiene still remains poor due to her current living conditions and the
lack of adult supervision at home. Sheila expressed to the teacher that her mother pushed
her out a moving car and abandon her on the roadside. She also said that her mother does

not love her, but expressed it a manner so calm that it was troubling. The ability to speak
of personal tragedy in a matter of fact fashion is an alarming behavior, she seems to be
detached from it. Sheila has yet to shed a tear.
Over the next three weeks of observing Sheila, she has made more gains and had
begun to blossom, meanwhile some areas of serious concern remain problematic. Sheila
has started to speak in class more often on a variety of topics and has shown herself to be
very articulate. Her unusual speech pattern remains, she uses do instead of be and
be instead of is, am, and are. Her speech also lacks any usage of the past tense,
but strangely she has good command of more complex tenses. The cause of this
phenomenon is still baffling to all involved. Her hygiene has improved with great effort
from her teacher, who has taught her proper hygiene practices. Although Sheila knows
how to read and math, she was never taught how to do normal everyday behaviors. Sheila
once again scored off the charts when she took the Stanford Benet IQ test. This child is
truly gifted, at six years she is reading at a fifth grade level despite anyone ever teaching
her how to read. Even with poverty being a big factor in learning, Sheilas strength and
courage has helped her overcome this obstacle and succeed academically. Socially she
has shown improvement by developing interpersonal skills and winning over her
classmates, she even has a best friend in class. She is learning to replace fighting and
aggression with acts of kindness. Kindness being a learned behavior is often learned by
modeling and observation, having seen very few acts of kindness in her life, this concept
may be difficult for her to understand fully. Learning how to be responsible is also an
area Sheila is showing improvement, she is assisting classmates learn and is riding the
bus alone.

Sheila has developed an issue with attachment, she continuously follows the
teacher around the classroom, this behavior most likely stems from her fear of
abandonment. After six years of being unwanted and unloved, she has imprinted herself
on the teacher, acting like a newly born duckling. This may be an issue for Sheila later
on. Her father is still an irresponsible parent and not properly caring for his daughter. He
is still drinking and his actions are hurtful, damaging her self-esteem. She has exhibited
low self-confidence by constantly trying to prove she is the smartest and the best in class.
But what is most worrisome is that Sheila is still showing aggressiveness without malice.
She has a sense of revenge where she astutely goes after something her victim cherishes
and destroys it. Another huge issue with Sheila is abandonment. She has become very
close to the teacher and reacted by becoming physically ill when faced with the reality of
her teacher leaving for two days. She regressed and became violent, destructive and silent
in the teachers absence. Sheila demonstrated self-destructive behavior by banging her
head on the floor when she was not allowed to go on a field trip due to her poor conduct.
This is the first time observing Sheila that she tried to physically harm herself but it is
also the first time in a long time she has to deal with losing something she cares about.
Three months have passed since this observation of Sheila began and there have
been unfathomable improvements in many areas. Sheila has been able to learn how to
solve problems verbally instead of using violence. There has been little or no destructive
behavior, she has learned to deal with her anger without flying off into a rage. Sheila has
been able to maintain friendships in school, demonstrating an improvement to her social
abilities. Academically she has flourished by completing all tasks assigned to her. Sheilas
puzzling language has also dissipated, it was suggested that this may have been a

premeditated attempt for Sheila to keep things anchored in the present. After having such
a hard life void of happiness, Sheila is exhibiting a capacity for joy, the smallest things
make her happy, whether it be eating pizza for the first time or flowers. Her father has
also shown some improvement. He demonstrated a few acts of kindness towards his
daughter by fighting to keep her out of the state hospital and going to see her in her
school play. Sheila has remained courageous, even while being hospitalized because of
abusive uncle. She now has the self-awareness to recognize all the positive changes she
has made in her life. She has made tremendous progress from the girl being observed
back in January.
With that being said, Sheila still has issues dealing with change. She acted out and
regressed to tearing papers when she move into the higher math class. This may stem
from her fear of failure, she is still very sensitive to being corrected. She is a perfectionist
and would linger over missing one problem. Sheila has problems dealing with her
mothers abandonment. She is preoccupied with the idea that if she were a better girl in
the past her mother would not have left, this notion has been reinforced by her father in
the past. Sheila sometimes has a problem dealing with reality, but given her past and
current situation, this is understandable. Sheila, who has had very little happiness in her
life, tends to harp on any positive experience, repeating it over and over. This could be a
form of self-induced therapy, or she could be trying to get as much happiness from these
experiences as she can. Sheila still tends to fuss when she is not given enough attention.
But what has been most troublesome is her sense of denial or her ability to take traumatic
events and store them away and forget them. She is able to act as if they never happened.
It is this ability to endure pain or trauma and not show any ill effects that is alarming. She

has not cried once since this observation started.

School is coming to an end and so is this observation. This concept of things
coming to an end, especially good things, is difficult for Sheila to comprehend. The bad
things have seemed to endure during her entire life but the good things are fleeting. The
teacher has announced she is leaving at the end of the year, this announcement brought
tears to Sheilas eyes for the first time. She is learning that crying is not only an outcome
of being hit or mistreated. The teacher has helped her cope with this transition in their
relationship by using the story of The Little Prince. Sheila is learning parting hurts and
crying is a normal reaction to missing someone you love, but love will endure even
though you are not together. Sheila is constantly asking questions, a sign of an inquisitive
and intelligent mind. The teacher also tried to help this transition into the following year
and her new class by introducing Sheila to the new teacher and having her explore her
new environment. Students being in a comfortable environment is conducive to learning.
She is also skipping a grade due to her high level of intelligence.
The improvement of this child over the course of months has been nothing less
than extraordinary. Torey Hayden has put forth a commendable effort and has shown to
be a very dedicated educator. She gave Sheila the opportunity to grow and succeed by
providing her with new experiences. Torey did not emphasize academics with Sheila
since she was already a gifted child. Torey taught Sheila other more valuable lessons in
trust, love, social etiquette, compassion and empathy, and responsibility. Sheilas life had
been void of any adult who truly cared for her well-being until Torey filled that role by
offering her unwavering support. Torey went above and beyond to help Sheila develop by
forming a close personal bond. With Torey leaving, there is some concern that Sheilas

abandonment issues may comeback due to the lack of any supports at home and
elsewhere.