- Ever since the legend of Romulus and Remus (the twins brought up by a wolf, who founded Rome) people have been intrigued and fascinated by tales of children brought up by wild animals away from human contact
- The study of feral children is important in the nature/nurture debate of development i.e. is it genes or experience that determine how a child develops?
- Case studies of feral children are the natural experiment that is far too unethical to be carried out
- It can be argued that part of being human is being brought up by humans, meaning are feral children really human?
Victor
& Itard
The first documented
case of a feral child was Victor in 1800s France. Victor was found
and studied by Itard who helped and cared for him.
Victor developed empathy, however he was never taught to speak. This broke new ground in the
education of the developmentally delayed.
In India, there were stories of
feral children. In 1930, a properly documented case of two girls living with
wolves emerged, however, they died before they could be studied.
Winthrop
Kellog was
eager to show that the effects of nature were the dominant force in human
development. He knew that to engineer a feral child was
unethical so instead he did the opposite: he brought a
chimpanzee up with his baby son. Not only did monkey show human characteristics,
but
the
son struggled
with language. Kellog
stopped the experiment when realising that it was damaging
to his son, but had successfully
demonstrated the vulnerability of early childhood.
In
the 1960s, Harry
Harlow showed the importance
in the
care-giving relationship between the mother and
an infant. Baby monkeys were taken
from
their mothers at birth and given choice
between two substitute mothers. All babies showed preference
towards the ‘warm’ mother. But, as
they developed, they became scared and confused
due to lack of a real care-giver. Early
isolation had damaged them
for life but is this the
same true for humans?
Genie
In
California 1970, a child was discovered who had been isolated for all of her 13
years in a dark room by Clark Wiley (who later killed himself). This
was just the case scientists had been waiting for! When
discovered, Genie was still in nappies, couldn’t walk and had no verbal skills.
She was physically deprived – the same size as a 7 year old. James
Kent (a child psychologist) and Susan Curtiss (linguist) worked with Genie. She
was considered as a new-born; for her, everything was a new experience. The
people working with Genie helped her to develop but also used her to answer
many questions/hypotheses about child brain development. There
was a theory that children could only learn certain things at certain times
(during ‘critical periods’), and language was one of those things. This theory
suggested that Genie had missed her chance. However, she appeared to prove this
theory wrong as she started to learn words for the things around her (showing
she was not mentally deficient). Despite
her progress, she was still haunted by the trauma of her childhood.
Linguistically, she reached a point where she did not develop further and she
could not develop grammar. Bruce
Perry explains Genie’s brain: the left cortex (responsible for speech and
language) was not stimulated as a child, making it less functional and
disconnected, resulting in physical changes. It had not developed the capacity
for language so would never be able to
learn. Nowadays,
with modern imaging technology, it can be seen in feral children that, without normal stimulation, brains are
smaller and malformed. More
trouble came for Genie when, after her 18th birthday, she was moved to state care. Moving from home to home was stressful
but those her originally helped her to develop (Susan Curtiss etc.) became her
main guardians.
However, Irene (Genie’s biological mother) decided Susan and others were too
close, resulting in a law suit and their prevention from seeing Genie. Genie
now lives in an adult care home and those who cared for her the most cannot see
her. I think this is a very sad story.
Mirny, The Ukraine (a run down town)
1999
– social workers found 4 year old Edik
in a deserted flat. He had turned to local stray dogs for warmth and protection
after being abandoned, and, as a result, his behaviour was much like a dogs’. Over
the next few years, in proper care, his behaviour and contact with other
children improved, although, linguistically, he was slow. At the age of 6, his
language was that of a 3 year old’s. Professor
James Law (a language expert) worked with Edik. Edik
was discovered earlier than some other feral children. His ability to relate to
others and empathise had improved greatly as a result of this. Linguistically,
he made good progress. Animal
expert Steve Fryer described the relationship between humans and dogs as very
special and says they have a primeval connection.
Oxana Malaya (born 1983)
Born
a healthy child but
with alcoholic parents. Left
outside at the age of 3 and began
to live with dogs for the next 5 years. When
discovered, she couldn't speak since she did not think it was necessary.
Children copy habits
of creatures around them. Now,
at the age of 19 – she can talk in simple sentences and discusses her
experiences. However, she is still able
to revert to old behaviour. Doctors
are still working on correcting her behaviour and think that finding her an
occupation will benefit her socially. She
has made amazing progress but, like Victor and Genie, development has halted
and will go no further. The
earlier a child is identified, the better the outcome. For example, Edik’s
future is encouraging linguistically – his vocabulary and grammar has
developed, which is partly down to the fact he was discovered at such a young
age.
In conclusion, it
is wrong to see feral children as hopeless. New understandings of brain
development means we can offer these
children more help.
This is a fascinating topic and I may investigate it further if I chose child language acquisition for my coursework investigation.
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