Social Isolation

Subtitle

Wild Child: Social Isolation

There are some children who grow up in the word away from society and human contact. These children are named Federal children or Wild children. In particular there was a young girl named Genie who group up until she was 14 in her bedroom, chained to her bed with only enough room to move from the bed, to a porta potty, and chair. The doctors used her as a research tool and researched what she could learn and grow, but after they lost their funding their interest in Genie slowly dispersed. After watching Genie research I became very interested in Genie and wild children in a whole and how the isolation affects them socially and mentally.   (BIZARRE. 2015)

Christian G(2014)

Learning Objectives

  1. What is a wild child?
  2. Identify wild children and know of some cases
  3. To describe some of the social effect Wild children can face
  4. To understand and know some of the mental effects wild child face
  5. To be able to identify learning effects from being isolated
  6. To explain and understand the three domains of a wild child

What is a Wild Child?

Documented Cases of Wild and/or Feral children


Genie Wiley; was found in the 1970’s in Los Angeles, she was isolated in her dark bedroom, tied either to the bed at night or to the potty chair during the day. She was almost 14 still wearing diapers, barely able to talk or walk. There were indications that she was beaten if she made noise. Genie was used as a study tool to learn more about how the brain develops and what happens if an individual in this case Genie goes without human interaction for the first years of her life. Due to her become a case study there is a lot of information of Genie. When social workers discover her, she couldn’t walk or talk, had abnormal reactions, inability to chew food, were still wearing diapers, was compulsive silent and had inappropriate sexual behavior. Also the social worker deduced she was abused by her father. It was later identified by her foster family she had no sense of sensation, temperature in particular, in instant she would run her bath water ice cold and it wouldn’t affect her. After the researchers lost their funding to help Genie, she most of the assistance she was receiving. Today Genie lives in adult home home communicating with sign language.(BIZARRE. 2015)
Oxana Malaya; was found in 1991, at the age of eight, living in Ukrainian among dogs. It was found that she had been living with the dogs since she was 3. Not only did she have a strong bond with the dogs but she also dog likes traits such as barking, walking on all fours, howling, sniffing, and digging. When authorities attempted to remove her from the dogs and rescue her they were forced away because of the protection from the dogs, and had to go back at a different time to rescue her.  After being found researchers discovered she had difficulty learning normal language and behavior. An interesting finding is that she was able to overcome her difficulties and learn the human language and behavior. Researchers are puzzled to why, and put it to her first three year with parents, or the successful care after finding her and or the socialization with the dogs (Sincki, A. 2016).
Victor of Aveyron; first found in 1797 wondering the woods in southern France, he was brought into custody but escaped until 1800. He was thought to be about 12 years old and was abandoned years earlier by his parents. For his first year he lived in a institution then was brought to a private home where scientist and his maid took Victor in and started to teach Victor how to act as a human. Victor made great progress but her never gained the ability to speak. He gained empty and was able to connect with society but still prefer to be outdoors, and never gained any language skills, though he did gain social cues.  He dies when he was about 40 years old. (Steven E. Barkan)

What are the social effect Wild Children have?

Children who are brought up in isolation can have a tendency to lack social skill that are learned through experience of being with other humans. Some of the common basic skills they can lack could be the ability to use the toilet, walk upright and communicate. Some children who are found later in their adolescent could show signs of mental impairment, and may not be able to learn language at all.(Sincki, A.2016).

Today researchers know there is such thing as a critical period in learning language along with learning and adapting social skills. When these children miss the critical period then they start to lose the ability to learn. As for the children who grow up in socialization with animals they find it especially  hard to gain human socialization cues.

What are the mental challenges wild children have to over come?

Some Mental challenges wild children faces is the inability to function as a normal child. The seem to stop learning after a certain compactly, none of the scientist understand the reasoning behind this. (Barkan, S. E.n.d.)  The child that would be left in isolation could be afraid of things she/he should love, such as people that are suppose to give her care. Also they would not know how to use human tools, such as utensils for eating, and if they are older enough they wouldn't understand how to use the bathroom. In many different cases that have been studied it has been shown that the children reach an end of learning, in regrade to speaking. There haven't been much studies done on reading skills, or math skills, strictly speaking and learning human behaviors. Overall if the child is found earlier enough and with enough support the greater the chance for that child. (Barkan, S. E. n.d.)

Learning effects wild children face

Due to wild children growing up in isolation away from other humans, it has been documented that they lack the basic characteristic that make us human. For example many of the documented cases the children had a hard time learning how to speak, they are very sensitive to temperature, they prefer the cold. Also they do not know how the use the bathroom. Lack table manners in the most common sense, using utensils, and even to go as far as chewing and drinking. (LaPointe, L. L. 2005)

Resources:

  • McCrone J. (2003). Feral children. The Lancet. Neurology, 2(2), 132. http://www.sciencedirect.com.libserv-prd.bridgew.edu/science/article/pii/S1474442203003156


  • LaPointe, L. L. (2005). Feral children.(Editorial). Journal Of Medical Speech - Language Pathology, 13(1), Vii(3).

Sincki, A. (2016). Modern Cases of Feral Children. In Healthguidance. Retrieved November 29, 2016.

http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/16139/1/Modern-Cases-of-Feral-Children.html


  • E. Steven. () Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, Chapter 4.1 The Importance of Socialization Comprehensive Edition, v. 1.0

http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/1806?e=barkan-ch04_s01#


  • NASH, R. (2009). Encounters with Wild Children: Temptation and Disappointment in the Study of Human Nature. ISIS: Journal Of The History Of Science In Society, 100(1), 133-134.




  • Robinson, L., Smith, M., & Segal, J. (2016). Emotional and Psychological Trauma Learning to Heal from Recent or Childhood Trauma and Move on with Your Life. In HELPGUIDE.ORG. Retrieved December 4, 2016.