UNISA

ASSIGNMENT 01 552421
2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS TOPIC PAGE
 Background Narrative 1

 Child Abuse 2
 Maslow’s Hierarchy 2-3

 Guidance for Ted 3

 Child trauma 4

 Parental involvement 5
 Intervention programme 5

SECTION 1: BACKGROUND
1.1 Erickson developed a model with eight stages of psychological development. This model is based on the idea that a person’s development moves through stages in their life and each phase will be affected by the stages of development they go through.
Each phase is seen as a challenge that should be attended to as they can be directly linked to one another and cause problems in the future

Ted is in adolescence stage that Erickson named the Identity vs. Role confusion Stage. He says that peer groups and role models for leadership are significant influences. Ted who had witnessed his step father abuse her mom in front of them endured some emotional pain that could lead to negative results especially in adulthood

Ted is a troubled child who needs guidance on how to treat a woman and how a child should be treated by parents, He is desperate and lonely because he is always isolating himself from other children because he feels useless and unlovable

The other important factor is that the stepdad still has not changed much even after Ted’s mother has gotten a protection order, which clearly indicates that Ted , his brother and mother still experience this pain inflicted by his step-dad.

Ted finally decided to approach me as his educator because he could not take this pain anymore and the reason he approached me was also to seek advice and maybe get some help. I then suggest the following

 The situation was be attended to as soon as possible to ensure the safety of the child and must be done through the right channel and rules followed
 Establish how best to handle the situation and referral to the relevant people
 Counselling should be provided for the learner in accordance with the institution of the school and Child care procedure as per the South African laws
 Sufficient and complete intervention should also be provided 1.2 Possible effects of child abuse
1.2.1 Child abuse “Child abuse is the physical, sexual or emotional maltreatment or neglect of a child or children” Thefreedictionary.com Retrieved 20 February 2015. Child abuse comes in many forms namely:

 Physical abuse
 Physical neglect
 Emotional abuse
 Emotional neglect
These forms of abuse vary and can result to unwanted consequences in the child’s life as seen in Ted’s situation, the traumatic experience has caused him to be anti-social and depressed. His academic work is also affected because he cannot concentrate fully in his studies as expected. If left untreated this could affect him in adulthood and even end up acting like the abuser
1.2.2 Emotional Abuse
Ted is suffering from emotional abuse both from her Mother and Step Father because they both yell at him when he tries to come in between them. The trauma of seeing his mother being bitten and threatened is too much for him because he fears that one day his step dad will kill his mother
Ted may also be traumatised by watching his brother cry because of the whole situation at home
1.2.3 Emotional neglect
This may result in:
-Ted’s life emotionally damaged
-Ted Experiencing handicapping stress
-Inhibits Ted’s optimal functioning (Schoeman et al 2015:62)
1.2.4 Physical neglect
This refers to the failure a child from exposure to any kind of danger (Schoeman et al 2015: 62)
Ted may feel that his mother is neglecting him physically because the step dad would beat him up sometimes and the fact that the step dad still lives with them, after everything that he has been doing to the family is an indication that Ted’s mother does not care about him

1.3 Possible effects of Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs on Ted’s behaviour
Maslow (1984:22) pointed out that “it may well be that until those primary needs have been met, significant cognitive development is impossible”
He created a hierarchy with needs that every human being possesses placing Esteem needs, Belongingness and love needs, Safety needs and psychological needs under Deficiency needs. He then went on to place Need to understand, Self-actualization, Aesthetic needs under Growth needs.
Ted’s deficiency needs are not being met and this may result to his growth needs affected in a great way. He cannot function as a normal child if his deficiency needs are not treated, as he already suffers from emotional abuse and Emotional neglect, as a teacher you need to assist where you can to ensure that his deficiency needs are attended to as this will result to:
 Ted being a happy child
 Concentration in his academic work
 Ability to socialise

SECTION 2: GUIDANCE FOR TED
2.1 Guidance
Online Dictionary describes guidance as “advice or counselling, especially that provides for students” or “A document providing official guidelines for implementing a policy”
2.1.2 Counselling
Counselling can be defined as a facilitative process during which the counsellor working within the framework of a special relationship, uses specific skills to help young people to help themselves more effectively (Schoeman et al 2015: 98)
2.1.3 Support for learning problems
The term “learning disability” refers to problems experienced by a particular group of children who give evidence of shortcomings in the development and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, comprehension and mathematical abilities. (Schoeman et al 2015: 103)
As an educator the best way I can provide guidance to Ted is:
 Listen to him as well as accept and acknowledge his hurt feelings
 Encourage him to take active steps in understanding and dealing with his own problems
 Help him develop an internal locus of control and to avoid developing a sense of helplessness and passivity ( Schoeman et al 2015: 104)

2.2 Child trauma and effects of child trauma on Ted’s life
Trauma is the unique individual experience of an event or enduring conditions in which the individual’s ability to integrate his emotional experience is overwhelmed and the individual experiences are a threat to his life (Georgetown University 2015: 02)
Trauma affects the victim’s life from childhood up to adulthood if left untreated. Ted may experience a feeling of inability to cope with the demands of a particular situation (Schoeman et al 2015: 68)
When Ted was abused emotionally and physically by someone he saw as a father figure and someone who is supposed to protect him created fear and lack of trust, it will be difficult for Ted to trust anyone with his life because of the past experience. Ted will not trust even his peers which may result in not having friends and being lonely
Because of the trauma Ted might also develop some overwhelming anger and anxiety which can result to him being a bully and abusing other children out of anger. Ted might also injure or kill himself just to ease the pain he is feeling.
Ted has become silent and does not talk to his peers in the class because he is constantly thinking about the situation at home that he cannot communicate with anyone because he feels that he will be judged
Ted faced impact stage when he was five that is the time his step father started abusing his mother just after he came into their lives in this stage he was confused and emotionally disorganised because he says that at times he would be ok which indicates that he did not understand. It is in this stage that his mother was supposed to support him and assures sense of security.
Ted moved to recoil phase because this is when the trauma sank in, this is when he experienced feelings of sadness and anger.
If nothing is done during this stage Tad would then move to the last stage where he will live with the trauma as a memory and will start to re-engage with other people
Ted may grow and do things that his step dad was doing to his mother if the trauma is unattended to, that are why it is important that you as the teacher assist him wherever you can and as much as you possibly can
Lewis (1999: 41) states that “Teachers have a significant influence on the child’s ability to recover from a trauma”. A responsive teacher therefore can help the learner to cope with frightening situations (Schoeman et al 2015: 73)

2.3 Parental involvement and parental counselling
Parental involvement has to do with the role parents play in their children’s schools. A lot of people feel that parents and communities should be more involved in the schools development.
Their involvement should not only be in the election of the school governing body and taking initiative in parent and teacher meeting. They should also be involved in life skills education programmes and assist teachers in addressing the different needs of learners; they should also be involved in teaching learners certain skills.
Parents should also be involved in projects like fundraising, sport, cultural activities and other extramural activities. Parents should be involved in the upkeep of the school facilities and equipment as this will benefit the learners and teachers respectively.
Counselling can be defined as a facilitative process during which the counsellor working within the framework of a special relationship, uses specific skills to help young people to help themselves more effectively (Schoeman et al 2015: 02)
Parental counselling is more focused building and maintaining relationship between parents and teachers. This can be done in parents meetings whereby the teacher gives feedback to the parent about their child. In these situations the parent may find out about their child’s problems and take initiative in helping them with the situation
2.4 Intervention programme for Ted
 First step is to discuss the problem with the school based support team.
Ted suffers from a great deal of worry that his father will one day kill his mother, him and his younger brother and this interferes with how he relates with his peers and mostly interferes with his studies because of lack of concentration in his studies  The next step is to make sure that Ted’s psychological needs are met before we can move to the more abstract needs higher in the hierarchy
 Make sure you gather all the information and evidence of the learner which shows that Ted is really suffering academically and present the information to the counselling team explaining to them what exactly is happening with Ted and how this is affecting him as a person and learner
 Make it clear that the aim is assist Ted overcome his traumatic experience that he is facing at home and results to poor performance at school
 Write a letter to Ted’s parents discussing his behaviour at school and calling a meeting with them to further discuss how we can be involved in assisting Ted and if they have noticed his strange behaviour lately

REFERENCES

• Online Dictionary. Retrieved 2015.
• Schoeman, S. (ed), Jansen, C.A. , Dreyer, J.M., Swanepoel, J.I., Van As, K.H., Vogel, H.M., Steyn, H.C., and Kruger, J.S. 2015. THE EDUCATOR IN A PASTORAL ROLE.