Dibs In Search Of Self Summary

Dibs In Search of Self was written by Virginia M. Axline in 1964. The book discusses a five year old boy named Dibs who is said to have either a cognitive or emotional problem. With his parents success they have become very wealthy. His mother was a top heart surgeon before she had Dibs and his sister and his father is an intelligent scientist. Once he is dropped off at his private school on the upper East Side by either his mother or the chauffeur depending on whether or not Dibs is cooperating, he isolates himself from the other kids, hardly ever speaks unless going through a tantrum, or in monosyllables, he hides himself from the other children, neglects any form of social interaction, and some activities. Even though Dibs shows signs

of retardation he also shows signs of intelligence at times. The teachers and even the school psychologist could never pin point what was exactly wrong with Dibs because not too many people could get close to him. Eventually the entire staff grew frustrated with the fact that they were doing the best they could to get Dibs to behave normally with little to none improvements to show for it. So they resulted in calling in psychologist Virginia Axline to take on Dibs and evaluate him to see if she can not only help but allow him to be himself. It was agreed upon Dibs parents and Ms. A that she would take him on as a study. They would meet every Thursday for one hour at the Child Guidance Center where Ms. A would take Dibs to the play therapy room where they would be alone and she could observe him. As the observations continue Dibs begin to open up more and more, allowing Ms. A to understand why he was submerging his feelings. He beings to understand his emotions and learns how to control them also becoming more open to interacting with people. Ms. A ultimately realizes that there isn’t anything mentally wrong with Dibs, but it is his emotions that cripple him. Eventually Dibs learns to be himself but also control his emotions allowing him to be a normal child.
The first connection that this book makes with our child development class is the chapter about play. The book brings up the fact that Dibs tends to isolate himself from other children and doesn’t communicate to anyone. During his stage of development there should be some social interaction between him and his peers. Dibs only being five years old the form of treatment that Ms. A uses for their meetings every week is play therapy. This form of therapy allowed Dibs to express himself throughout playing, or doing any other activities. In our textbook it discusses many forms of play and how they influence the way a child develops and functions with others. One of the forms of play that was mentioned was called Pretense/Symbolic Play this type of play is basically when the child converts the physical environment into a symbol. The child learns to alter objects and treat them as if they were something else. It is the way the child becomes creative and uses pretend-play to believe that one thing is another. For example during their last session Dibs had used the miniature figures of houses and people to kind of express himself. Virginia Axline writes, “This is the father, the mother, the sister, the boy. Now the father is standing by your house. He doesn’t know what to do. And this is the mother. And this is the boy Dibs. This little girl is with her father. She is going to jail. The sister and mother are going to jail because I don’t need a sister.” Dib’s mother feels like she has failed as a parent when it comes to Dibs which is why she praises her “normal child” Dorothy Dibs sister. By her doing this it pushes Dibs to isolate himself emotionally even more from not only peers but from his family also and ultimately expressing resentment towards them both.
Another connection made with our textbook is the chapter about intelligence. In the beginning of the book it was believed that Dibs was not developing at the same rate as the other students. This conclusion was made based off the facts that Dibs was not interacting with anyone, he hardly spoke, and he would never engage in any of the activities presented by his teachers. The term intelligence has many different definitions and unlike other things such as weight or height it cannot be measure which is why there isn’t one specific way to explain it. In the textbook it gives a broad definition on what intelligence is, “intelligence is the ability to solve problems and to adapt and learn from experiences”. This definition doesn’t define everyone, especially Dibs. The chapter also brings up the concept of nature vs. nurture. It states that the concept is related with intelligence and that arguments have been made on whether genetics or the environment have a greater influence on it. In Dibs case an argument can be made that he is more of an experience learner rather than a genetics one. In Dibs family No one else had the same problems he did, and both his parents were very intelligent but just because Dibs behavior differs from what is said to be normal it doesn’t mean he isn’t or won’t be as intelligent. Virginia Axeline writes, “According to the existing learning theories, he should not have been able to have achieved any of these skills without having first mastered verbal language and without having had appropriate background experiences. Nevertheless, Dibs did possess these skills to an advanced degree”. Here Ms. A is explaining how Dibs has certain knowledge of things that according to the theories he should not base off the fact that he does not talk or experience. Dibs possess abilities that are beyond him but because he is considered to be “different” he doesn’t show them off like other children would.
As I come to a close I believe the author was trying to tell a story about how a child can develop differently than others.

She also wanted to make a point that just because a child’s behavior is different from what is said to be normal it doesn’t always mean that it’s because of a mental illness. Some children have trouble being normal because they know that they are different from what’s being said to them, or how they see others behave. As a psychologist I don’t believe the author had any personal assumptions on Dibs because through their sessions she never once made him feel judged. When the sessions started she stated that the playroom was a place where Dibs could be his self and free of any judgment. She believed in the theories of development so that when she realized that Dibs is much more smarter than what he appears it surprised her, and because here’s this boy who hardly ever interacts with people knows things without having had achieved verbal language. The type of assumption I think this falls under is prescriptive. Even though Dibs disability was more internal than mental he still had the capacity to learn and had acquired quite a bit of knowledge already. Reading this book it surpassed my expectations and it shows that just because a child behaves differently or slowly mental disability doesn’t always have to be the answer. It also shows how being emotionally crippled can have an effect on how you develop all over. The author did an amazing job on getting Dibs to a better place emotionally. I enjoyed the fact that throughout their sessions she never made Dibs feel ambushed with trying to pin point a diagnosis for what was wrong with him. I believe this is what differed her from Dibs teachers, parents, and psychologist they believed that he was disabled mentally and they acted on it by making him feel like something was wrong with him. But with Ms.A every Thursday she treated Dibs like a normal child allowing him to himself for the first

time.