The video, “ Genie the Wild Child ” is about a girl, who is anonymously known as Genie, and stays isolated from other human beings and human treatment from birth to an age of thirteen (Wiley, 2003). Genie is depicted as a an example of a human being who stays separated from human contact since birth to puberty age; and hence goes through a variety of inhumane treatment and experiences. For instance, Genie lacks experience of human care, human language and social behavior (Wiley, 2003). Genie comes out as the best example of a feral child who imitates animals in terms of behavior and language development. The discovery of Genie causes a heated debate in the field of psychology; on whether it is nature of environment or genetics that play greater role in terms of language development, and if there exists a critical age beyond which an individual may not learn a language.
According to Noam Chomsky, language acquisition cannot be fully explained through learning alone, but language acquisition is aided by an inborn language acquisition device (LAD) that enables a child to automatically understand the language principles and communication skills (Cherry, 2019). Chomsky further asserts that once a child is exposed to language communication ideas, the LAD automatically triggers the child to learn the language in question remarkably (Cherry, 2019). Notably, Chomsky suggests that critical age for language development is twelve years (Cherry, 2019). This implies that if a child fails to be exposed to language communication ideas past twelve years of age, he or she may not be able to learn language at all in future.
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Given that Genie is discovered at an age of thirteen, which is believed to be past the stage at which a child may not develop language skills, her case would later prove Chomsky’s hypothesis right or wrong depending on the later outcomes of Genie future experience in terms of language acquisition. For instance, if Genie would later successfully learn how to effectively communicate, then Chomsky’s hypothesis would be ruled out; but if Genie fails to show progress in terms of language development and growth, then Chomsky’s hypothesis of language development would be held true.
Genie’s language progression creates some insights that Chomsky’s hypothesis may be dropped. Genie initially scores like a one-year-old child at her early assessment in terms of language development. However, Genie quickly begins showing progress in vocabulary development through learning single words and later learns combining two words in an attempt to make speech, just like young children acquire language (Wiley, 2003). It is noted that after a further period of language exposure, Genie is able to occasionally put three words together as she approaches the stage of language explosion that normal children go through during their stages of language development (Wiley, 2003). Psychologists are almost dropping Chomsky’s hypothesis, but later things changes based on Genie’s new records in terms of language development.
It is known that once children enter the language explosion stage, they acquire new words rapidly and begin to assemble the words sequentially in novel ways (Cherry, 2019). However, Genie fails to register any progress in terms of language explosion. Her language development stagnates at the explosion stage and she fails to learn how to apply grammatical rules. Besides, Genie fails to be able to meaningfully use language and her language progress finally levels and any attempt to make her acquire new language skills fails terribly (Wiley, 2003). At this level, Genie’s case holds true for Chomsky’s hypothesis of critical age for language acquisition and development. Despite Genie’s ability to learn some language at puberty age, her inability to apply grammatical rules in speech offers evidence about the hypothesis for the critical period of language acquisition and development.
Having missed her critical period of language learning, the next debate regarding Genie’s case now is whether language acquisition affects other aspects of development or not. Vallotton and Ayoub (2011) describe three aspects of life development that are influenced by language acquisition and development. These are self-regulation, cognitive development, and social and emotional development. It therefore, stands out that parents and other guardians ought to endeavor in instilling language acquisition procedures to their children at early ages, preferably during the first three years of birth, in order to enable them develop the necessary language skills essential for their future life. Self-regulation, cognitive development, and social-emotional development are among the key life aspects that largely rely on language acquisition at early ages (Vallotton & Ayoub, 2011). Missing language development at early age therefore, translates to direct or indirect failure to acquire these three important aspects of life.
Self-regulation is a social life aspect that is acquired at early ages of development ( Hart & Risley, 2003 ). Research has shown that self-regulation is closely linked to language (Vallotton & Ayoub, 2011). For instance, the ability of a child to be able to use language to develop self-regulation skills, such as being conscious in life events, recognizing warning sounds and symbols, recognizing one’s gender, being able to communicate one’s needs, being able to understand internal states, and regulation of one’s behavior (Vallotton & Ayoub, 2011). Genie lacks self-regulation skills, thereby proving that self-regulation is highly dependent on one’s ability to use language effectively, as observed in various stages of children’s language acquisition.
Cognitive development is another factor that relies hugely on one’s language acquisition. For instance, language learning promotes one’s cognitive skills such as concept learning and spatial reasoning ( Hart & Risley, 2003 ). Failure of Genie to display these skills even at adult age is clear evidence that cognitive development is dependent on language acquisition. Genie fails to recognize language pattern, and consequently registers low levels of cognitive development.
Another important life aspect that is dependent on language acquisition is social-emotional development. Language development plays an important role in the development of social-emotional behaviors, such as level of temperament, attachment, social competence, and emotional regulation (Vallotton & Ayoub, 2011). Genie registers high levels of fear, low interactive skills, and has inability to control her emotions. She behaves the same way animals behave, even after she is exposed to human treatment for long time.
Watching this video about Genie’s life experience has earned me an important lesson in life. I was able to appreciate my parents and other family members for raising me in a good environment that helped me to develop good communication skills. I learnt that it is necessary to expose a child to human contact in order to enable him or her acquire human characters ( Hart & Risley, 2003 ). Genie comes out as a child who is deprived of her happiness, a sense of security, love, and an opportunity to learn from human contact. She therefore, lacks language acquisition; a factor that hinders her from growing as a healthy, normal, and as a happy human being within the society she lives. Besides, the staging of this video has taught me to be a responsible parent who should use the human heart to raise children under caring environment ( Hart & Risley, 2003 ). I will use my common sense to act towards protecting children against mistreatment, initiating child care plans, and creating a sense of child care competence in my society.
Genie’s case presents a sad story of a real human being. It gives me take away thoughts about future research on language development. Conducting a research using Genie’s life experience is really a social dilemma. Having a human heart, I feel that it was unfair for psychologists to use Genie’s case to conduct their scientific research about language development. However, as a psychologist I feel that Genie’s case served as an example of a real life situation illustrating a good story of human development; especially in terms of the importance of language acquisition at early stages of life. I also learnt about the merits and demerits of conducting unacceptable life experiments. Genie’s feral state of life could not be corrected at the end and she fails to experience life as a normal human being.
References
Cherry, K. (2019). Overview of Feral Child Genie Wiley: The Shocking Story of the Famous Wild Child Raised in Isolation. (Online).Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/genie-the-story-of-the-wild-child-2795241
Hart, B., & Risley, R.T. (2003). The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3. P. 1-6.
Vallotton, C., & Ayoub, C. (2011). Use Your Words: The Role of Language in the Development of Toddlers’ Self-Regulation. 26(2): 169-181.
Wiley, M.S. (2003). From the TLC documentary 'Wild Child: The Story Of Feral Children': Golden West Ave. Arcadia,CA 91007 She was not a wild child, she was an extremely abused child. (Online).Available on https://elearn.uta.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-8213407-dt-content-rid-144976205_2/xid-144976205_2
