The Development of Language and Attachment

925 Words2 Pages

In what time in a person’s life does the development of a language and the attachment towards people occur? When most people think about the time that the development of a language and the attachment to people occur, it is common to think of the early stages of a person’s life. The videos, “Secrets of the Wild Child” and “Patricia Kuhl: The Linguistic Genius of Babies” provide examples of how the development of language and the attachment between people can be effected greatly based on the environment a child is raised in and what age the child is taught the skills to interact. Imagine being isolated from all social interactions, abilities to communicate, and being forced to spend life in a single room, tied to a potty chair. In “Secrets of the Wild Child,” a young girl referred to as Genie was faced with this type of isolation until she was found at the age of thirteen. Genie had no interactions and developed no ability to communicate. If was as if Genie was a “wild child” based on the behaviors she portrayed due to her lack of ability to communicate. Babies and young infants need to not only hear the language they are trying to learn but also have human presence in order to understand and learn the language being taught to them. (Patricia Kuhl: The Linguistic of Genius Babies, 2010). Since Genie was so neglected from such a young age, she never involved in any type of communication nor heard language enough to learn it. The focus of the research done on Genie was if she would be able to learn any communication skills or develop any personal attachments since she missed the normal window of development in a child to learn such tasks. She was taught language later in her life but was not able to truly develop it. This evidence sug...

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...her ability to learn these later in life since her brain could no longer learn in the way best fit for these abilities to mature correctly.

References
Garmon, L. (Director). (1994). Sercets of the Wild Child [Motion Picture].
Griggs, R. A. (2012). Developmental Psychology. In R. A. Griggs, Pyschology: A Concise Introduction (pp. 253-268). New York: Worth Publishers.
Hermann, D. (1998). Helen Keller: A Life. In D. Hermann, Helen Keller: A Life (pp. 45-46). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kringelbach, M. (2010, October 21). The Importance of Childhood: Our Emotional Brains are Shaped by Social Interactions During Infancy . Nature 467, pp. 918-919. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/467918a
Patricia Kuhl: The Linguistic of Genius of Babies (2010). [Motion Picture]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies.html

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