# What's the story behind Genie and whatever happend to her (child isolation)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-behind-genie-and-whatever-happend-to-her-child-isolation/191967
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 30, 2003, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-behind-genie-and-whatever-happend-to-her-child-isolation/191967 "2003-07-30T19:32:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2003, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-behind-genie-and-whatever-happend-to-her-child-isolation/191967/1 "2003-07-30T19:32:19Z")
_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:
1. 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?
2. 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).
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-behind-genie-and-whatever-happend-to-her-child-isolation/191967/2 "2003-07-30T19:40:34Z")
Here’s an earlier thread:
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=14612](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=14612)
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to contain any info since 1997.
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### Author:  [@Brad\_Amundsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brad_Amundsen)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2003, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-behind-genie-and-whatever-happend-to-her-child-isolation/191967/3 "2003-07-30T19:43:13Z")
This is a website containing Genie’s story :
[http://www.feralchildren.com/en/showchild.php?ch=genie](http://www.feralchildren.com/en/showchild.php?ch=genie)
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### Author:  [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2003, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-behind-genie-and-whatever-happend-to-her-child-isolation/191967/4 "2003-07-30T20:16:50Z")
1: [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2112gchild.html](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2112gchild.html)
> [@](#):
>
> WALTER CRONKITE: Officials in the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia have taken custody of a thirteen-year-old girl they say was kept in such isolation by her parents that she never even learned to talk. Her elderly parents have been charged with child abuse.
>
> STACY KEACH: This is the scene of the crime. The child was locked in a room and tied to a potty chair for most of her life. Completely restrained, she was forced to sit alone day after day and often through the night. She had little to look at and no one to talk to for more than ten years.
>
> WALTER CRONKITE: The girl reportedly was uttering infantile noises and still wearing diapers when a social worker discovered the case two weeks ago…
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### Author:  [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-behind-genie-and-whatever-happend-to-her-child-isolation/191967/5 "2003-07-30T23:08:06Z")
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. ☹
Julie
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### Author:  [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2003, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-behind-genie-and-whatever-happend-to-her-child-isolation/191967/6 "2003-08-04T18:25:35Z")
For anyone in the UK who may be interested, the above programme “Wild Child” is repeated tonight, Discovery Channel, 10-11pm. 🙂
Julie
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### Author:  [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2003, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-story-behind-genie-and-whatever-happend-to-her-child-isolation/191967/7 "2003-08-04T21:34:49Z")
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.
Interesting book- I recommend it.