Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay introduction on feral children
The story of feral children
The story of feral children
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
I watched the documentary “Secret of the Wild Child”, on a girl who was in isolation from birth to thirteen years old. Her name was Genie and is referred to as a feral child. This means she was without human contact from a young age, and has no experience of human care, social behavior, and, of the human language. Feral children are often known as being raised as animals and therefore imitating their behaviors. However, a child who is severely neglected is also considered a feral child. During the time she was discovered, around 1970, there was a major debate in the field of psychology. The famous nature verses nurture argument, meaning does genetics play a greater role in development or does one’s environment. In the case of Genie, the real focus was on her language development and deciphering if there was a critical age to learn a language. On November 4, 1970 in Los Angeles, California Genie’s condition was brought to attention by a social worker. The worker discovered the 13-year old girl in a small, dimly lit, confined bedroom. An investigation by authorities exposed that the child had spent most of her life in this room and typically was tied to a potty chair. Genie was found in diapers because she was not potty trained. Her case is an example of extreme isolation from human contact, society, sunlight, and any other environments besides her room. The deprivation of attachment showed when she was timid to humans, almost afraid. Someone whose life was a developmental nightmare could not possibly be expected to have the basic trust that the world is trustworthy and predictable. The life she lived was incredibly horrifying as morals, and psychology portray just how severe the consequences were on Genie. Genie’s father would b... ... middle of paper ... ...ter care home somewhere in southern California. Her present condition is debated. One individual hired an investigator in 2000 and supposedly found her to be happy. Another person, this time a psychiatrist, who visited her found her to be silent, depressed, and chronically institutionalized. After watching this documentary, I truly was appreciative to the family care and environment I was born into. The importance of human contact became very evident through the heartbreaking discussion of Genie. I was able to develop successfully though Erikson’s stages as I had a basic trust, a will to do things myself, an initiative to create plans, and a sense of competence. Genie on the other hand has been deprived of happiness, a sense of safety, love needs, human contact, opportunities to learn, and many other factors that makes a healthy, normal, happy human in society.
Precious’s case is unique and layered with many factors that affect her ability to grow into a healthy functioning adult. It is critical to make interventions that consider economic, cultural, psychological, biological and environmental factors that shape the client’s experiences. Providing a safe environment, and supporting Precious on making responsible decisions for the success of her future are my main objectives as her social worker.
Often, individuals reflect upon their lives, remembering all of the accomplishments, stories and struggles; Roland Johnson takes the opportunity to reflect on his life in his Autobiography Roland Johnson’s Lost in a Desert World. In addition to his reflection, Johnson shares his life experiences, which no one is compelled to experience again, thanks to his efforts. Also, an abundance of lessons are present in Johnson’s book, which are applicable to daily life, additionally advocating for others with disabilities. With the perspective of a future educator an abundance of knowledge applicable in several ways after gaining a better understanding through the book as well.
Let 's start off with some of the Feral children. For example Oxana. Oxana was abandoned at a very young age and was found by dogs and was raised by dogs! When she was discovered, she acted just like all of the dogs around her. She walked on all four legs, and always scratched her ears and just always seemed to be just like a dog. Another example of Feral children is Jeanie. Jeanie was raised harsh by her father, and she was beaten up by her father a lot. When Genie was discovered she didn 't really know how to talk at all and she didn 't know how to read or write. So this study is a great conclusion of how Nurture over rules Nature.
We are told there are days when she "was happy to be alive and breathing, when her whole being seemed to be one with sunlight.." On such days Edna "found it good to be alone and unmolested." Yet on other days, she is molested by despondencies so severe that "...
Every day the safety and well-being of many children are threatened by neglect. Each child deserves the comfort of having parents whom provide for their children. Throughout the memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls explains the childhood from being born into the hands of parent who neglect their children. Many may argue that children need to grow with their parents; however, the removal of children is necessary if the parents disregard the kid’s needs and cannot provide a stable life for their children.
She daydreamed to escape life (Marilyn p.8). She was placed in orphanages on and off throughout her childhood. When placed in a foster home, foster parents seldom believed her if the subject of her complaint was the biological child of the foster parent...
Someone can physically look like their parents, siblings or even ancestors from the third generation. When a baby is born, it is common to learn in a natural way. No one teaches a baby how to crawl or how to react when he and she is hungry. However, talents, qualities and personalities are developed through experiences. The environment in which people grew up can have a lasting effect or influence on the way they talk, behave and respond to things around. According to Steven Pinker, Behavioral genetics has shown that temperament emerges early in life and remains fairly constant throughout the life span, that much of the variation among people within a culture comes from differences in genes, and that in some cases particular genes can be tied to aspects of cognition, language, and personality (2). Researchers believe that the origin of behaviors occur in genes in the DNA or even animal instincts which this concept is known as nature of human behavior. Other researchers believe that people are they were they are because they are taught to do so. This concept is well known as nurture in human behavior. In society, there will always be the doubt between Do we born in this way or do we behave according to life experiences? I strongly believe that nurture plays an important role in the upbringing of a child and the decisions that one makes in the future. Firstly, humans learn from their environment and other’s behaviors. Secondly, culture is a huge remark in people’s life. Finally,
Undoubtedly, humans are unique and intricate creatures and their development is a complex process. It is this process that leads people to question, is a child’s development influenced by genetics or their environment? This long debate has been at the forefront of psychology for countless decades now and is better known as “Nature versus Nurture”. The continuous controversy over whether or not children develop their psychological attributes based on genetics (nature) or the way in which they have been raised (nurture) has occupied the minds of psychologists for years. Through thorough reading of experiments, studies, and discussions however, it is easy to be convinced that nurture does play a far more important in the development of a human than nature.
"Case 4 Genie, The Wild Child Research or Exploitation?" Case 4 Genie, The Wild Child Research or Exploitation? Georgetown University, n.d. Web. 15 Sep. 2013. .
Nature by itself can affect a child’s development. If the child is born with a disease or mental illness, they may develop at a slower pace. For example, if a child is born with Asperger’s syndrome, the child will have a difficult time with social skills and understanding emotions. Nurture deals with the environment. If a child was raised in a hostile environment, that child is more likely to be hostile when they get older. Environment may play a larger role in most cases due to everyday lifestyle, from the city you live in to the way you are raised. If one was raised in a healthy house hold, someone who lived in a toxic household may behave differently.
When children are born they have no concept of what a mother and father are, but they understand who they are and as the grow older they are able to connect those words mother and father to a person. Many behaviors and characteristics are resulted from learning. Albert Bandura tested a social experiment where a child watched another person act aggressively, they child then mimicked this aggressive behavior. This conditioning all leads to nurturing. Nurturing a person and conditioning them through actions and language can lead them to be anything, even if they have a genetic nature. Genie, through careful study and teaching was able to learn certain words and know the difference between the color black and white. She could use simple signs to get people to understand what she wanted. Prior to her teaching, she knew nothing of how to communicate, but due to a nurturing environment she was able to connect to the people around her. The critical period of a person's life comes when they are at infancy. This is the time when children learn the simple words of whatever language they are being taught. Studies have shown that if you want your child to be bilingual, the best way to teach them is when they are young, because at this point they are in the early stages of learning a language, and they are able to adapt much more quickly to this language then when they get older. The critical period of a child again falls under nurture, as it is up to the parents to nurture their child by teaching them the language they need to know to be successful. Language doesn't come in a your genetic nature, it comes from your parents teaching. While many believe that one can only learn a language in the critical period, it is disproven in A Genie and millions of other. Genie was able to form words and half decent
Ever since her illness that left her with a physical deformity she has had no control over own wellbeing and life. Even with everything else that goes on around her, her life revolves around a set of glass animals. They are her only escape from the tension of family issues and the unhappiness that surrounds her in her apartment. Due to her physical deformity she had a seizure of fear during school one day and dropped out of school because she was embarrassed. Because of her physical condition it left Laura with an insecurity of what other people may think of her. Her glass animals played a huge part in her illusion and isolation because in her search for a friend she built a make-believe relationship with them along with a Victrola and old records. “Although Laura 's life is caught up in self-sustained illusions, she acknowledges her situation freely. She has given up trying to be “normal.”” (Presley 41). Laura realizes exactly what is going on in her life, but because of her crippled physical state and blinded mentality, she has become a prisoner to herself. She does not believe that anything else in the world could give her the same secure feeling as her fantasy
A lot of theorists are stuck in the middle of the nature verses nurture. Some believe it’s a biological factor ultimately responsible for human growth. Others believe that children become whatever the environment shapes them to be.
Let’s take the feral children for an example. There were two kids that we learned about and their names were Jeanie and Oxana. Oxana was living with dogs for pretty much her whole childhood. When they found Oxana they noticed she did pretty much everything like a dog. Jeanie was beaten by her father, and she was left alone until she was 13 years old. Jeanie’s father hated noise, so she barely ever talked or heard others talk. Once she was found, her behavior was like a 3 year olds. She had trouble walking and talking, in fact, she only knew a few words and could barely even stand. Both of these examples of the feral children are nurture because their personality’s have been based off their surroundings.
Watching The Secret of The Wild Child, I felt an enormous amount of sympathy for Genie. The thing I found most disturbing was the fact that she was tethered to a potty, she could have caught a wide range of disease from it. What I found most interesting about the documentary was how her rehabilitation team allowed her experiment to fall through. I believe that Genie could have benefited more if the experiment