Case Study: Interpret Tina's Story

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SECTION 1: BACKGROUND 1.1 Interpret Tina’s story in terms of the possible effects of a traumatic experience resulting from her mother’s marriage to John’s father Puberty is considered to start at age 11 years and end at about 15 to 17 years in girls (American Mdical Association, 2001). Hence, when analysing Tina’s situation from an Eriksonian perspective, it could be said she is an 11 year old pubescent undergoing the competency versus inferiority stage of development (Walter, 2011). With this in mind, and being adversely affected by the dynamics of stepfamilies (Falci, 1997), Tina displays an inferiority complex which is associated with timidness, withdrawal symptoms, being overly obedient, procrastination, observer-oriented and not producer-oriented and constant questioning of own abilities in the micro – and macro systemic environments (Walker, 2011). Furthermore, she does not have a positive and close relationship with her mother - who regards her as the cause of her divorce from Tina’s father -, she has no relationship with her father who walked out on them when she was three years old and she is sexually abused by her 21 year old stepbrother, John (Schoeman, Jansen, Dreyer, Swanepoel, Van As, Vogel, Steyn, & Kruger, 2011). Thus, all the positive outcomes as highlighted by Erikson in his developmental stages, such as trust, autonomy, initiative and competency are issues that Tina struggles with. Hence, she is afraid of confiding in her mother about the sexual abuse and finds it difficult to build relationships with others. Her lack of confidence and trust has been compounded by having no relationship with her biological father creating a sense of abandonment and rejection (Gindes, 1998). In future, because of her sense of ab... ... middle of paper ... ... or enlist the child’s interest related to the task  Simplify the task to make it more manageable and achievable for a child  Provide some direction in order to help the child focus on achieving the goal  Clearly indicate differences between the child’s work and the standard or desired solution  Reduce frustration and risk  Model and clearly define the expectations of the activity to be performed (Bransford, Brown, and Cocking, 2000). Teachers have also used scaffolding to engage students in research work and learning. In this context, scaffolding facilitates organization of and focus for students’ research (McKenzie, 1999). The structure and clearly defined expectations are the most important component of scaffolding in this context. The teachers provide clarity and support but the students construct the final result through their research.

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