The Cambridge Enclypodeia of Language, lists several cases of child isolation and children being brought up by wild animals(so-called Wolf Children) as case studies on the development of language in children. The most recent case listed is Genie who was found in the USA in 1970 aged 13 1/2 having apparently being isolated from any linguistic stimulation from the age of 20 months.
What I’d like to know is:
How did Genie come to live in such a state of neglect and isolation? Was she lost and raised by wild animals or were her parents responsible for this?
What eventually happened to her? Is she still alive today? CEL says that she managed to learn some basic language pretty quick but at the same time her language development was seriously effected by her learning so late (for example she used the ‘wrong’ hemisphere in her brain for language).
Genie’s story was covered on Discovery Channel recently … apparently she was never able to live a normal life, and has spent the last however many years in a mental institution.
I read Savage Girls and Wild Boys not long ago, which discusses feral kids and has a chapter on Genie. Apparently, she was further screwed up by being passed from foster home to foster home and being squabbled over by researchers who wanted to save her or make their reputations on her. The author speculated that if she’d gone from her parents’ house to some kind of stable, loving place, she might have had more of a chance.
