SOC 12
GENIE : WILD CHILD
In November, 1970, in Los Angeles, a 13-year-old girl was discovered who could not speak. She had grown up in almost complete isolation. She had been tied to a pottie chair for more than ten of her thirteen years. She wore diapers.
Scientists wondered whether a nurturing environment could make up for her horrible past. He father was psychotic and only barked at her in order that she not make noise. She could only say "stop it," which she said as one word and which her father frequently yelled in her presence.
Her name is Genie, because like a genie, she emerged into adulthood from an enclosure.
Susan Curtis helped he learn to speak while others helped her in other areas. Dr. Kent, a psychologist, helped her to build relationships.
Genie would tactually explore meats which a butcher gave her. She had a powerful effect on those around her. Once, a child, of his own volition, came up to her and gave her his fire engine.
Dr. J. Shirley, a psychiatrist sought to determine her mental capabilities. She had abnormal sleep spindle patterns indicating that she was mentally handicapped. Was she born that way or did it happen as a result of a lack of stimuli?
Her father claimed that she was retarded and that's why he locked her up. It turned out that he was jealous of Genie and so to keep his wife's attention focused on him, he kept the mother and daughter separated. He committed suicide a week before his abuse trial was to begin.
Dr. Kent noticed progress: she was showing emotions going from happy ones to sad.
Jean Butler was Genie's special education teacher. She was with Genie when she uttered her first words "doctor" and "tie." Curtis said that the Genie team was trying to get her to express what was latent. Predictions of her success were made at this point. Genie wanted a word for everything.
Victor, another wild child (feral child) was found in France in the early 1800s. He came out of the woods naked and mute. He was approximately 12 years old. He ate odd food, lacked speech and had many scars on his body. Dr. Harlin Lane, a psychologist and historian described how a Bonaterre found it odd that Victor liked the cold - even with no clothes on he would roll around in the snow. One therefore suspects that sensitivity to temperature is learned in one's culture.
What makes us human? 1) appearance? 2) upright walking? 3) language?
Because no one would ever purposely isolate a child only to later experiment to see if the child could learn a language after puberty, this experiment with Victor and subsequently with Genie, is known a the Forbidden Experiment.
At the National Institute for the Deaf in Paris, Sigard (sp?) found Victor defecating and urinating in the courtyard. Sigard then asked Dr. Itard to help educate Victor. Jean-Marc Itard wanted the chance to become famous for successfully educating a wild child. Francois Truffeau played the part of Itard in his own film called the Wild Child. It ran one week after Genie was discovered.
Victor and Genie give us an idea of what it means to grow up without human contact and how our early ancestors may have acted.
After the film, the Genie team members felt that they were going to be remembered in history for their work.
The experts all felt that their experiments and their ways of analyzing Genie were the best.
David Riggler, a psychologist at Children's Hospital took a great interest in Genie.
The debate among linguists at the time was "Could an adolescent having entered puberty still learn a first language?" Chomsky felt that language learning was innate. Lenneberg felt that language had to be learned before the age of puberty or the learner would never learn the language like a native speaker.
Genie was eager to code her new world. She wanted a name for everything. She wanted to know each individual hue for colours.
Dr. Kent acted as a surrogate parent. He took Genie to appointments, etc.
She loved to see helium balloons float up.
Jean Butler took Genie from the hospital to her home; her fist foster home.
Genie hoarded things, particularly liquids in her room. Butler's diaries indicate that she was unhappy with how the researchers were treating Genie and so she tried to cut off their visitation rights. Curtis maintains that Butler did this so that she could become famous.
Riggler took Genie home and took over the role of many of the experts. She stayed with him for four years. The year after the grants dried up, the Rigglers gave Genie over to foster care.
Marilyn Riggler had a degree in child development. She taught Genie how to turn her emotions from harming herself outwards: she taught Genie how to have a fit, slam doors and stomp her feet on the ground. Genie learned to express degrees of emotions as well. When she waved one finger, she was very angry. When she waved her whole hand, she was somewhat upset.
Genie, like Victor, did not mind the cold. He bath water was cold.
When she looked at people, especially in her first year, she was very intense.
Marylin role-played with Genie. Genie showed how distressed she was about her past. She talked about the time when she was strapped to the pottie chair. She was using language to describe events at a time when she knew no language.
Genie's initial progress was fast. "I like log." She had a good grasp of nouns. Victor's was fast at first as well and he also had a good grasp of nouns. Neither ever did learn how to talk very well. Genie: "What blue cup is in?" - What is in the blue cup, or "Apple sauce gets store." = We have to get applesauce at the store.
Both Itard and the Children's Hospital team abandoned their patients after several years with no hope of success.
Dr. Shirley believes Genie was retarded from birth as indicated by the sleep spindles. Curtis believes she was not retarded but handicapped as a result of being deprived of a normal childhood development. Every year she would place one year higher on psychological tests.
At age 18, Genie returned to the care of her mother who was not convicted of child abuse. This lasted only a few months. The mother found it too difficult.
At this time she sued the Children's Hospital for excessive research and not considering the well-being of the patient. They settled out of court.
Genie went to a foster home where she was beaten for vomiting. She closed to mouth to avoid vomiting as a result of this traumatic experience. She never talked again like she had at the hospital. She lived in 6 foster homes since she left the hospital. Currently she is in the care of an adult foster home in southern California.
Genie:
Nov 25 1970. Arcadia, Los Angeles. Parents isolated Genie.
Susan Curtis
Genie: bunny walk, spat, sniffed, clawed, (beaten for making noise). James Kent: Genie's psychologist
People felt they had to "rescue" her. They were powered by rescue fantasies anyway.
Explore the world tactilely.
Jay Shirley: Oklahoma psychiatrist. Expert in social isolation. Solitary confinement is "diabolical." Causes psychological trauma over long periods of time (for some, 15 minutes is enough).
Brain wave study: sleep spindles. (bunching of waves together) sign of mental retardation. Retarded from birth or as a result of no mental input. Mother: weak, nearly blind. Domineered by mother. Father committed suicide.
How should her case be handled. Kent believed she could improve if she could form relationships.
May, 1971. (About 6 months later). Genie says first word "doctor." "tie" she learned I 00 words one year after she was found.
Take the latent and learn to express it.
Mental and physical growth. Doctors predicted success would come with Genie.
Victor: 1800. Southern France. Mute and naked,
Food preference, scars, lack of speech indicated he was in the wild most of his life.
Bonaterre (French scientist). Victor liked the cold (played gladly in the snow. He loved being naked.
Sensitivity to temperature is influenced by our life experiences.
End of the Enlightenment. Debate: what makes us human? Appearance? Upright walking, language.
Victor was an example of a human stripped of influence from society. National Institute for the Deaf. Abbe Sicard: sees Victor urinating, defecating, spitting, snarling, biting, covered with scars, yellow teeth, long fingernails, matted hair.
Jean Marc Itard: 26 year old medical student. He saw Victor as an opportunity to make his mark on history and in the medical community. Could he civilize a wild child?
Doctors felt Victor was retarded from birth. Itard thought it was because of the isolation and that this could be reversed.
Howard Hansen: in charge of psychiatry of Children's Hospital
National Institute of Mental Health funded research on Genie.
David Riggler: psychologist at Children's Hospital
Noam Chomsky: we have language "born in our genes."
Eric Lenneberg: there is a deadline for acquiring a first language. Critical Period Hypothesis: there is a time that is just right for language learning.
The Forbidden Experiment.
Kent: too many people for Genie would prevent her from making dependable relationships. He became her surrogate parent. He said he "loved" or was "very attached" to her.
Woolworths: thread color (hue). Genie wanted to know each hue. She passed father and little boy. Boy had fire engine. After they passed, the boy turned, walked back and gave the fire engine to Genie. At Gene Butler's home: (teacher of Genie at Children's Hospital). This was Genie's first trial in a foster home. July 1971. Genie hoarded liquids (as did other isolated children).
Curtis claims that Gene Butler wanted to become famous and was going to use Genie to do so.
At Marilyn Ken'ts home: teach Genie how to throw a fit. Waving the index finger meant "really mad"; waving the hand meant, "mad, but it will pass"
KNOW THE MEANING OF THE FOLLOWING:
Feral child
Anatomists and their ilk.
Forbidden experiment
Critical Period Hypothesis
Not a nice little bourgeoise deaf kid
Read philosophy astutely
Examined tactilely
Sleep spindles
Stimulus
Latent
Hoard
Innate
Defecate
Hue
Entourage
Surrogate parent
Linguistic coup
Ambiguity
Diabolic
Depositions
The analogy with Genie just hit home.
Empathize
Up to management, i.e. us, to interrupt.
Unencumbered
Upping the ante
What behaviour might indicate that Genie was not retarded, according to our traditional understanding of that word?
How would you deal with a wild child? What would you do to introduce it into society?
Itard felt that Victor was retarded because he was raised in the wild, not because he was born that way. What do you think?
Suggest why children who have been isolated tend to hoard, especially liquids.
Dr. Kent said he'd planned to take in Genie for 3 months. Yet he said she should have "dependable" relationships.