Genie Wiley: The Feral Child

Susan “Genie” Wiley, otherwise known as the “Feral Child” was born April 18th, 1957. She was a child of abuse, isolation, and neglect by the people who surrounded her during her very sheltered life. The environment that Genie was subjected to was a lonely one. For most of her life she was limited to one bedroom in the household and was affixed to a chamber pot that allowed for little movement, essentially complete isolation. Her caregivers—or lack of was her father and mother who she lived with along with her older brother. Genie’s mother, after marrying her father was restricted from leaving their house and was frequently beaten. Her mother, because of an accident, began to lose her sight which left her over time extremely dependent on Genie’s
In their opinion this theory, or “Critical Age Hypothesis” depends on three factors; the developmental state of the child prior to neglect, the duration, quality, and intensity of the neglect inflicted on the child, and lastly, the biological state of the child before isolation (Fromkin, V., Krashen, S., Curtiss, S., Rigler, D., & Rigler, M. 1974). With this hypothesis an additional critical period must be considered. A critical period is understood in this context as a particular point in time where language is most easily learned. According to Eric Lenneberg a critical period lasts from about age two all the way to puberty. As we can see acquisition is impossible before the age of two due to maturational factors and is void after puberty as a result of the loss of plasticity (Lenneberg, 1991). If in fact a critical period does exist then the three factors that determine the “Critical Age Hypothesis” would be void and in turn the child would not be able to acquire language outside the critical period
For two years seventeen separate comprehension tests were given to Genie weekly—of those seventeen, Curtiss’ test sought to understand Genie’s singular/plural distinctions with nouns. In this experiment two pictures were displayed, one picture contained one object, like one apple or one balloon, and the other picture contained three identical objects, like three apples or three balloons. When asked Genie was prompted to point at the appropriate picture to distinguish if the picture contained singular or plural objects. Up until July 1972 Genie’s responses were only correct by chance, however since that July she started to give 100% correct responses. The results from this comprehension test show that when Genie gives a wrong answer and then the right answer is then provided she essentially “catches on: and comprehends why it was the wrong answer. This is evidence that she is in fact able to learn in a post-pubescent