Development (continued)

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Development (continued)
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Learning Objectives

• 1. Define the term wild child
• 2. Explain theories of language development.
• Discuss how neglect and social isolation affect
  cognitive (mental) and physical development.
• Evaluate the roles of nature (heredity) and
  nurture (experiences) in development.
• Key Terms wild (feral) child abuse nature
  vs. nurture debate language acquisition device
  babbling stage one-word stage two-word stage
  Eric Lenneberg Noam Chomsky critical period
  plasticity

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Definition

• Feral Child a child who has lived in
• isolation starting at a very
• young age and thereby has
• remained unaware of human
• behavior and language

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Romulus Remus
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Mowgli Tarzan
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Feral Children

• Victor (early 1800s) The wild boy of Aveyron.
  Found in the woods at about 11 or 12. He was
  probably partially mentally retarded. He never
  learned to use language.
• Isabelle Found at 6 (1947). In two months she
  was combining words. Within a year she had
  similar language to other 7 year olds.
• Genie (1970) 13 year old girl had lived whole
  life in total isolation in her home. She may or
  may not have been of normal intelligence but
  never able to acquire language.

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Victor The Wild Boy of Aveyron

• Captured in January 1800

• Estimated to be about 10 years old

• His desires did not go beyond his physical
  needs

• He could not speak or understand human language

• He preferred raw food and ripped of any clothes
  that were put on him

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Victor - The Wild Boy of Aveyron

• Diagnosed as an incurable idiot
• Put through numerous tests (psychological and
  physiological)
• Made small progress in social behavior
• Never learned to speak or understand human
  language

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Isabelle

• An illegitimate child she had been kept in
  isolation by her grandfather and fed by her
  deaf-mute mother (who communicated with her
  through gestures)
• Found 1938 at the age of 6 in Ohio
• Made Astonishing progress Day 1 -gt first
  vocalizationafter 2 months -gt putting sentences
  together11 months-gt able to identify written
  words, to add to ten and to
  retell a story18 months -gt able to ask
  complicated questions vocabulary of about
  1,500 2,000 words
• ? Reached a normal mentality by the age of eight
  and a half years
• ? Covered in 2 years the usual stages of
  learning- that ordinarily requires six!

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Genie
Characteristics Weight- 59 pounds Height- 54
inches Incontinent Unable to chew Barely able
to swallow Unable to focus her eyes beyond 12
feet Unable to cry Could not fully extend her
arms or legs Could not tell the difference
between hot and cold Spoke very little. 
Stopit, Nomore, and other negative She only
understood about 20 words
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Genie

• From the age of 20 months, she lived in nearly
  total isolation. For 11 years Genie was harnessed
  naked all day long to a toddler's potty seat At
  night, with her arms restrained, she slept in a
  sleeping bag inside a "crib-cage" made of wire
  and wood.
• Whenever Genie made noise, her father would bark
  like a ferocious dog or beat her.
• Her 'toys' were cottage cheese containers, two
  plastic raincoats, threadless spools of
  thread,
• Found in November 1970 in California, at 13 years
  of age she could not stand erect and was unable
  to speak except 2 words Stopit, Nomore
• 1971 her language resembled that of a normal
  18-20 months old child (one year after her
  discovery)? two-word utterances, EX. Want
  milk., Big teeth
• But NO vocabulary explosion after 18-20 months
• Could not formulate questions,EX Where is may I
  have a penny? I where is graham cracker
  on the top shelf?
• Present condition speech development is not
  perfect, but she can say most things she wants
  lives in an adult foster home in California

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Kamala and Amala
Children raised by animals

• The wolf children Kamala (8y.) and Amala (2y.)
  had been living with a family of wolves in a
  cave in a jungle in India
• In 1920, they were discovered in Midnapore, by a
  missionary who took charge of them
• Preferred to sit in the darkest corner of their
  room
• Fingers and toes were deformed, they were not
  able to stand upright
• snarled at other kids and cried like wolves
• Amala died in September 1921
• Within 5 years Kamala had a vocabulary of more
  than 40 words ha (yes), hoo (cold) she was
  also able to name objects
• 1929 Kamala died

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Oxana Malaya
Children raised by animals

• At the age of 3, her alcoholic parents left her
  neglected daughter outside one night and she
  crawled into a hovel where the family kept dogs
• Between the ages of 3 and 8, she lived with the
  dogs in a kennel of the back garden of her family
  home
• In 1991, the dog child was found in Ukraine,
  barking and crawling on all fours
• At an orphanage school, she was taught to walk
  upright, to eat with her hands and to acquire
  language
• 2006 at the age of 23, she is able to speak, but
  there is no cadence or rhythm or inflection to
  her speech she can count but not add

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How do people learn to speak a language?

• One theory, called the Environmentalist
  Hypothesis, holds that people learn language
  through their interactions with others,
  especially from hearing their parents speak.
• Another is that individuals are born with the
  rules for language ingrained in them (called
  nativist theory of language. Noam Chomsky
  theorized humans are born with a language
  acquisition device LAD
• A third proposal, the Critical-Period Hypothesis,
  states that people must learn language within a
  critical period during early development if they
  are ever to comprehend and master the structure
  of language (Eric Lenneberg)

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The Critical Period Hypothesis(Lenneberg, 1967)

• Before age 2, language acquisition is not
  possible because the brain is not sufficiently
  mature
• After puberty, natural language acquisition is
  not obtainable because the brain is mature,
  mental functions is complete and brain plasticity
  is lost
• In order to acquire language, there are two
  necessary requirements1. a human brain2.
  sufficient exposure to language during this
  critical period between the age of 2 years
  and puberty

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Normal Language Development
AGE Language milestone
4 m Babbling stage appears innate, even babies born deaf go through the babbling stage
1 year from babbling to words one word stage (holophrastic stage) Ex. Milk
18 m Two word stage (or telegraphic stage) Ex. Want kitty
3-10y Begin to learn grammar and syntax rules Ex. Sam hitted my head with a toy.
11-14y If you are learning a second language at this age you probably have foreign accent
15y Is difficult to learn a second language
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LanguageNature vs. Nuture

• So the main question for Genies case
• Was she mentally disabled from birth? (nature)
• Or was she deprived of language after her
  critical period? (nurture)

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Was Genie Mentally Disabled From Birth?

• Susan Curtiss Genie, although functionally
  retarded because she had hardly lived and
  experienced the world around her, was not
  mentally deficient in any sense in which we
  typically think of as mentally deficient.

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Conclusion

• Some feral children acquire normal language
  ability, but only if found before the onset of
  puberty(EX. Isabelle)
• Other feral children never master the rules of
  grammar and syntax
• Unless children are exposed to language in the
  critical period, they lose much of their innate
  ability to learn a language and especially its
  grammatical principles
• The Critical Period Hypothesis is not proven, but
  it is strongly supported!

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Secret of a Wild ChildViewing Guide

• Focus Questions
• Can a loving environment reverse years of abuse
  and neglect?
• Do people learn language from their environment
  or are they born with an innate ability to speak
  (Nature vs. Nurture debate)
• If a person has not acquired language by the age
  of 13, can they learn to speak?

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Copy the following questions. Skip 3-4 lines for
your answer. Turn in for a grade.

• 1. Explain the concept of a wild child.
• 2. What kinds of scientific study/research
  opportunities does discovering a wild child
  offer?
• 3. Describe the abuse Genie suffered. Who were
  her abusers?
• 4. At the age of 13 why cant she talk?
• 5. Who was Victor? How does the story of Victor
  relate to Genie?
• 6. Why was Genies case so important to language
  researchers?
• 7. Describe Genies treatment and progress?
• 8. Who do you think should get custody of Genie?
  Who really cares about Genie?

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• 9. What happened to Genie when the Rigler's grant
  money ran out?
• 10. Was Genies brain damaged from years of abuse
  or was she born that way?
• 11. How do you feel about the courts decision
  to return Genie to her mothers care? About her
  mothers lawsuit?
• 12. In your opinion is this a sad or an
  inspiring story? EXPLAIN.
• 13. Where is Genie today?
• 14. Why would an experiment like Genies never
  be repeated?

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Any Questions?
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• Who was the scientist in charge of studying
  Genies's language development?
• Eric Lennenburg
• Noam Chomsky
• Susan Curtiss
• David Rigler
• The idea that principles of language are innate
  (i.e. genetically transmitted) was proposed by
• Noam Chomsky
• Susan Curtiss
• Eric Lennerburg
• B.F. Skinner

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• Genie's language therapists switched to teaching
  her sign language because
• She refused to use her voice
• Her parents had used some sign language with her
• She had difficulty producing speech sounds
• She had started to use gestures on her own
• In the end, the scientist involved in evaluating
  Genie concluded that she
• Had learned some vocabulary, but had very
  abnormal language
• Would make more progress with sign language than
  with spoken language
• Could not learn language due to the possible
  mental retardation
• Would continue to learn language, but it would
  occur slowly

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• Genie, her nearly blind mother, and her elderly
  grandmother disturbed the social worker. The
  three had come into the Social Welfare office in
  Temple City, California, to learn about resources
  for the blind. The date was November 1970. The
  social worker noticed that the "small withered
  girl" had "a halting gait" and "hands held up as
  though resting on an invisible rail," which gave
  her a curious, unnaturally stooped posture. The
  girl was so tiny that the social worker estimated
  she might be six or seven years old. She
  suspected the child might be autistic. But Genie
  was actually thirteen and had been in solitary
  confinement since she was two years old. Her
  'jailer' was her father.

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• In the next few weeks, Genie's story came to
  light, and, shortly after it did, Genie's father
  killed himself. The father had locked Genie up to
  protect her from what he considered the dangers
  of the outside world. During those 11 years,
  Genie was harnessed naked all day long to a
  toddler's potty seat. At night, with her arms
  restrained, she slept in a sleeping bag inside a
  "crib-cage" made of wire and wood. Whenever Genie
  made noise, her father would bark like a
  ferocious dog or beat her.

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• Genie ate baby food, cereals, and soft-boiled
  eggs, all of which were fed to her. Her 'toys'
  were cottage cheese containers, two plastic
  raincoats, threadless spools of thread, and
  copies of TV Guide stripped of illustrations. Her
  bedroom walls were bare. She had no books, no
  radio, no television. The only words addressed to
  her were angry ones. She could say "stopit,"
  "nomore," "no," and a few other negative words.
  At age 13, she understood only 20 words.

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• Genie's father also kept his wife and son, who
  was a few years older than Genie, captive. He
  rarely permitted them to speak or to go outside.
  Sometimes, he sat all day with a loaded shotgun
  in his lap.
• Through a cracked-open window in her room,
  Genie may have heard airplanes overhead or faint
  piano music drifting from a neighbor's house. Two
  inches of sky and the side of a neighbor's house
  were all that she could see through the top of
  the covered glass.