Feral Child Research Paper

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A feral child is classified as a child who has been isolated from human contact, love, emotion and care. They have no sense of human language, how to perform human care, or how to behave as a human. The first documented scientific case of a feral child was in France, in the 1800’s.
Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, a doctor in Paris, acquired the feral child, now named Victor. Itard performed two tests that he thought defined a human. The empathy test and the language test. Victor couldn’t perform either of these correctly. After many months of working with Victor, Itard and his helper, Madame Guérin, started to make progress. Victor went to live with Madame Guérin and started to use silverware. He was also able to walk without having to use a leash, …show more content…

Genie Wiley was a child who was raised in one of the neglected environment ever recorded. Her actual name is not Genie she was just nicknamed Genie for protection. Her father Clark Wiley made his son and wife cut off all contact to Genie which caused her to be raised in an isolated environment. She wore diapers till the age of 13, which is when she was found. Genie slept in a chicken wire cage, when she was found she was the size of a 6 year old and had not learned any type of human language. She could not walk without help either. Soon after she was found she made a tremendous amount of progress. She started to walk more and started to learn words for different things in her everyday life, but she could not create language. Genie did not have the mental capacity to use grammar. The left side of the brain is responsible for language, children are taught language, which then strengthens the neurons and synapses in the brain. During childhood the brain prunes and shapes itself, destroying the neurons and synapses not needed. This is because it is learning so much, creating new synapses that it does not need, called synaptic overproduction. The brain realizes this and starts to cut out things not being used. In this sense a child can be taught to do or be anything. Since Genie was not using the language portion of the brain and not being taught that stuff, her brain pruned and cut out the things she did not need, which it thought was the neurons and parts of the brain that help with language. Genie’s brain changed itself and adapted to live the life she was. Since this happened at such a young age Genie’s brain damage was permanent and she was unable to ever learn the ability to use

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