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the context of his daily life of increasing responsibility, identification with norms,
freedom, etc. according to his own talents. The abused child is not receiving this
support.
The abused child's experiencing of reality from a psychopedagogic perspective, does
not allow him to determine what opportunities are available for emancipation. The
exploring and emancipation that the abused child experiences always has a negative
connotation. This results in the psychic life of the abused child being pedagogically
inadequately actualised (Van Niekerk 1987 : 6-8). This directly pertains to the modes
of his exploring, emancipating, distantiating, objectification and differentiating, which
are in the same event inadequately actualised in terms of the pedagogical norm. He
is indeed obstructed in his progress towards adulthood.
A child is constantly ascribing his personal meanings to these relationships with his
parents and teachers and is emotionally vulnerable in this respect (Van Niekerk 1987:
8). The adult should, therefore, take special care in the course of his educative acts
that the child will consciously know that he is able to learn and to achieve, and that
his personal worth is genuinely recognised. Ifthis is not accomplished, the educational
relationship is dysfunctional and this invariably has a negative influence on the child's
progress towards adulthood, i.e. his development
Sonnekus (1976 : 124-129) also refers to matters such as the physical care of the child
(including his diet, health and hygiene); social well-being (also implying that the child
should be properly housed, have enough friends, be allowed to take part in
recreational activities and have adequate relationships with adults); affective neglect
which could occur in various ways, e.g. by too much or too little petting or lack of
togetherness; inconsistent educational attitudes of the parents which signify an
incoherent and disjointed approach to the child, confusing him and causing feelings of
insecurity; marital problems, where tensions exist between the parents; and broken
marriages, where the child may feel that he has been rejected or neglected by one or
both parents. The neglect of the physical, social and affective aspects of the abused
child are therefore all contributing factors to his negative situatedness, i.e. a