What Effect Did The Conflicts Have On Genie

Secret of the Wild Child
What were the various roles (personal and professional) played by the adults working with Genie? How did these differing roles conflict? What effect did the conflicts have on Genie? Some of the first people to have a substantial impact on Genie when she was rescued were Susan Curtiss, a linguistics student intent on helping her learn to communicate, and James Kent, Genie’s psychologist and caretaker. There was a lot of controversy over whether or not Genie was mentally retarded from birth, as her parents insisted, or if her poor mental capacity was a direct result of her neglect. Through working with Genie consistently over the years, Curtiss believed that she was not retarded from birth - she claimed it was impossible for her to be retarded because of the immense progress she was able to make. It is common in congenital disorders such as retardation to have very slow progress, or even none at all, but this was not the case with Genie. If Curtiss had not persisted with this theory, Genie may not have learned any words, and she may not have made any real progress in communicating. Throughout her time with this project, she was able to visit Genie regularly. However, shortly her birth mother took over position as her legal guardian, Curtiss was forbidden from seeing
There is evidence to support the theory that an individual must begin acquiring a language before hitting puberty, when the process of cerebral lateralization has ended. Once the separation between left and right hemispheres of the brain has been completed, their functions may still be connected, but language acquisition becomes extremely difficult. In fact, it becomes impossible for the individual to completely comprehend grammar and sentence structure after this critical period, which is shown in Genie’s