978-1572305441

Sophie 181
ried a bag of sticks and feathers for her to amuse herself with, but instead
she preferred to explore the room. She would pick up the toys
from the box and look at them briefly but then quickly put them down
and turn to something else. She communicated little during our time together
but was not eager to leave. I learned from Greg and Marianne
that she spoke about six words, but largely had her immediate needs
met by placing her parents’ hand on a desired object, pointing at things
close by, or simply protesting. In most circumstances her parents had to
guess what she wanted. She had poor eye contact, smiled only when going
for a ride in the taxi to the treatment center, and generally played by
herself. She would not ask for help in getting things or to play. She
would not share her joy in her play activities, and if her mother was
hurt or crying, instead of offering comfort, she would become mad and
frustrated. She sometimes sat on her parents’ knee during the interview
but would not cuddle with them and related only to a few workers who
came to the house to work with her. She had no interest in other children
at the child development center and would not join in the games.
She loved to stare at things. Sophie would bring her eyes right up to a
dog’s eyes, or to someone wearing glasses or an eye patch. She loved to
turn objects like feathers and straws around in her hands. She carried
around twigs, Lego blocks, and tree branches. She liked to run in circles
and to rock in the car and in front of the TV.
She could also be quite aggressive, although I never saw this during
our time together. Sophie was suspended from kindergarten because of
this behavior. Apparently she lasted about four days before the teacher
and principal started phoning Marianne asking for help. Sometimes
they would call as early as 9:15, even before Marianne returned home
from dropping her off at school. Her mother was often afraid to leave
the house in case she got a call from the teacher saying she had to come
and pick her up because she had been aggressive or had hit another
child. Eventually Marianne took to not answering the phone so she
could take a shower in the morning. More recently, Sophie would have
terrible temper tantrums in which she would wail for hours if she were
denied an object to hold in her hand, sometimes bite herself, scratch
her parents, throw things around the room. These screams felt like a
constant reprimand to her parents, a confirmation of their failure to
nurture this handicapped little girl.
There was clearly more to Sophie’s development than simple developmental
delay caused by early deprivation. Sophie was not able to
demonstrate the social skills usually seen even in a six-month-old child.