Traumas of the Character in The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog by Bruce Perry

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Response Paper Please discuss the traumas that the characters experienced. Tina is a character in the book ‘The Boy who was Raised by Dogs’ by Bruce Perry. She was sexually abused by her family neighbour’s teenage son when she was only 7 years old. The nature of the sexual abuse she endured is not detailed but her behaviour was very telling. ○ What evidence do you have that the events were traumatic? In the case of Tina, she exhibited overly sexualized behaviour for a child of her age. The therapist noted that she ‘shifted slightly and moved her hand to my crotch and tried to open my zipper’ when they first met when she was 7 years old (Perry and Szalavitz). The author noted that she had developed that strange behaviour because she had only known men as sexual predators. Additionally, he noted that she had been referred for therapy when because of ‘aggressive and inappropriate behaviour.’ At school, Tina has exposed herself and attacked other children, used sexual language and tried to engage other children to engage in sex play (Perry and Szalavitz). Her behaviour pointed to a child who had experienced sexual abuse and developed a heightened interest and knowledge of the matter relative to her peers. Her experiences had made it hard to socialize healthily with her peers and her performance in school was consistent with a child with trauma issues. 
○ What factors contributed to the traumatic nature of the events? There are direct and indirect factors that contributed to the nature of the traumatic events. Firstly, the repeated sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her family’s neighbour's sixteen-year-old son (Perry and Szalavitz). The sixteen-year-old son who repeatedly abused Tina and her brother and threatened them not to tell anybody is the first direct traumatic event that contributed to her trauma. Indirectly, Tina was raised in a dangerous environment where she had little interaction with her mother who was her primary caregiver. Her mother worked long hours and could not afford a professional babysitter hence resorted to seeking the help of her neighbour who had to leave the children to the older son who molested Tina and her brother.
○ What risk factors were present for the characters? Lack of supervision – Tina was left in the hands of a sex predator for nearly two years. Two years is a long time for the sexual exploitation of a young girl to go on without anyone noticing. Therefore, the children in this environment are left in a dangerous environment where they are abused without anyone noticing. Poverty also played a key factor in the exploitation of Tina and her brother. The mother who worked for long hours could not afford to provide a safe environment for her children to grow up in. They had to be left in the care of a neighbour who also left them in the hands of her teenage son (Perry and Szalavitz). The lack of sufficient time for the mother to interact with Tina and her brother because of work coupled with the inability to afford a safe environment and responsible babysitters for her children contributed to their exploitation.
● Discuss the mental health con...