One Child is a memoir by American author and psychologist Torey Hayden. It was first published in the United States in 1980, becoming a bestseller in the 2000s.[1] The book has been translated into 27 languages and dramatized as an interactive opera. It was also loosely adapted as the 1994 Lifetime television film Untamed Love, starring Ashlee Lauren, Lois Foraker and Cathy Lee Crosby.[2] The book has inspired people to move into Special Educational Need careers.[3]
The book opens with Hayden, a special education teacher, reading a newspaper article about a six-year-old girl who had beat up and burned a three-year-old boy a couple of days prior. Since there was no place for her at the hospital, the girl, named Sheila, was placed in Hayden's class. Sheila had been abused and abandoned by her parents, and she rarely spoke. Over the subsequent five months in Hayden's class, Sheila gradually became more involved in classroom activities. Meanwhile, Hayden incrementally learned more about Sheila's background, which included horrific abuse from an uncle.
A sequel to this book, The Tiger's Child, was published in 1995.
