Genie (feral child)

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Genie (born 1957) is a pseudonym for an American wild child who is the victim of severe abuse, neglect, and social isolation. The situation is well documented in the abnormal linguistic and psychological history of children. When he was a baby, his father concluded that he had severe mental retardation, an increasing view as he got older, causing him to dislike him and not care and attention. Approximately at the time he reached the age of 20 months, he decided to make him socially isolated as a result of this belief, so from that point on until he reached the age of 13 years and 7 months he made him locked alone in the room. During this time he almost always kept him tied to a child's toilet or tied him up in bed with his arms and legs completely immobilized, forbidding anyone to interact with him, giving him almost no stimulation whatsoever, and making him very undernourished. His isolation level prevented him from being exposed to a significant amount of speech, and as a result he did not get the language during his childhood. His harassment became the concern of the Los Angeles children's welfare authorities on November 4, 1970.

In the first few years after Genie's life and early state were revealed, psychologists, linguists, and other scientists focused great attention on Genie's case, seeing in almost total isolation a unique opportunity to learn many aspects of human development. Having determined that Genie has not yet learned the language, the linguist sees Genie as providing an opportunity to gain further insight into the process that controls language acquisition skills and to test the theories and hypotheses identify critical periods in which humans learn to understand and use language. Throughout time scientists have studied Genie, he made substantial progress with his overall mental and psychological development. Within a few months of being discovered, Genie has developed remarkable nonverbal communication skills, and gradually learned some basic social skills, but even at the end of their case studies, he still shows many typical behavioral traits of uncharted people. He also continues to learn and use new language skills all the time they test it, but ultimately still can not fully acquire the first language.

Authorities initially arranged to enter Genie to the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, where doctors and psychologists managed their treatment for several months, and subsequent life arrangements became the subject of heated and prolonged debates. At the end of June 1971 he left the hospital to stay with his teacher at the hospital, but a month later half the authority placed him with the scientist family who was head of the research team, where he lived for nearly four years. Soon after the age of 18, in mid-1975, Genie returned to live with his mother, who after several months decided that he could not take care of her. The authorities then moved him in the first of what would become a series of institutions for disabled adults, and the people who run them cut him off from almost everyone he knew and made him an extreme physical and emotional abuse. As a result, his physical and mental health deteriorated, and his newly acquired language and behavior skills quickly retreated.

In January 1978, Genie's mother suddenly banned all of Genie's scientific observations and tests, and since then little has been known about her situation. Until July 2016, his existence is uncertain, though he is believed to live in the state of California's care. Psychologists and linguists continue to discuss it, and there is considerable academic and media interest in its development and methods of the research team. In particular, scientists have compared Genie with Victor of Aveyron, a nineteenth-century French boy who is also the subject of case studies in delayed psychological development and late language proficiency.

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Genie is the last, and the second is alive, of four children born to parents living in Arcadia, California. His father worked in the factory as an aviation mechanic during World War II and continued the flight thereafter, and his mother, who was about 20 years younger and from an Oklahoma farming family, had come to southern California as a teenager with family friends who had escaped from Dust Bowl. During his childhood, Genie's mother suffered a severe head injury in an accident, providing long-lasting neurological damage that causes a degenerative vision problem in one eye. Genie's father grew up in an orphanage in the Pacific Northwest of America. His father died from a lightning strike and his mother ran a brothel while only rarely saw him. Besides, her mother gave her a feminine first name that made her a constant target of ridicule. As a result, he retains an extreme hatred against his mother during childhood, which brother Genie and scientists who study Genie believe is the root of the next anger problem.

When Genie's father reaches maturity, he changes his first name to a more masculine father, and his mother begins to spend as much time as possible with him. She became very fixated on her mother, despite her relentless argument about her efforts to convince her to adopt a less rigid lifestyle, and to treat all other relationships as the best. As soon as Genie's parents married, he prevented his wife from leaving home and beat him with increasing frequency and severity. Her vision continued to deteriorate because of the lingering effects of nerve damage, severe cataract onset, and retina released from one eye, making her increasingly dependent on her husband.

Genie's father did not like children and did not want his own son, found them noisy, but about five years into their marriage, his wife became pregnant. This child, a seemingly healthy girl, contracted pneumonia after her father found her disturbing cry and placed her in the garage, and died at the age of ten weeks. Their second child, born about a year later, was a boy diagnosed with Rh disability who died at the age of two days, either due to complications of Rh incompatibility or by choking on his own mucus. Three years later they have another son, who is described by a doctor as healthy despite also having Rh incompatibility. His father forced his wife to silence him, causing delays in significant physical and linguistic developments. When he reaches the age of four, his maternal grandmother takes over the treatment for several months, and he makes good progress with him before finally returning it to his parents. Early life

Genie was born about five years after her brother, around the time her father began to isolate herself and her family from others. At birth she is in the 50th percentile for weight. The next day she showed signs of Rh incompatibility and needed a blood transfusion, but did not have any residual symptoms and was otherwise described as healthy. Medical appointments at three months showed that he gained normal weight, but found a congenital hip dislocation that required him to wear a very tight Frejka splint from the age of 4 ½ to 11 months. Splint caused Genie to run late, and the researchers believe this made her father begin to speculate that she was mentally retarded. As a result he tried hard not to speak or pay attention, and strongly did not encourage his wife and son to do so.

There is little information about Genie's early life, but the available records show that for his first months he showed relatively normal development. Genie's mother then remembered that Genie was not a cuddly baby, did not babble, and refused solid food. Sometimes he says that at some point Genie does not specify certain words but can not remember them, but at other times he says that Genie never produced any speeches. Researchers never determine which is the truth.

At the age of 11 months Genie is still healthy overall and has no recorded mental disorders, but dropped to the 11th percentile for weight. The people who later learned he believed this was a sign that he was beginning to suffer some degree of malnutrition. When Genie was 14 months old, she suffered from fever and pneumonitis and her parents took her to a pediatrician who had not seen her before. The pediatrician says that, although his illness prevents a definitive diagnosis, it is possible that he is mentally retarded and that kernicterus brain dysfunction may exist, further reinforcing his father's conclusions that he is very backward.

Six months later, when Genie was 20 months old, her father's grandmother died in a crash-stricken traffic accident. His death affects Genie's father far beyond the normal level of grief, and since his son has walked with him, he holds his responsible son, increasing his anger. When the truck driver only receives probation for both ordinary murder and drunk driving, he becomes delusional with anger. Scientists believe these events make him feel that society has failed and convinced him that he needs to protect his family from the outside world, and that in doing so he has no self-awareness to recognize the destruction caused by his actions. Because he believes Genie is mentally retarded, he thinks he will need extra protection from him, and therefore he decides he needs to hide his entire existence. He immediately quit his job and moved his family to his mother's two-bedroom house, where he asked for his mother's car and his abandoned bedroom completely untouched as a shrine for him, and further alienated his family.

Childhood

After the move, Genie's father further restricted Genie to the second bedroom behind the house while the rest of the family slept in the living room. During the day, for about 13 hours, Genie's father tied him to a child's toilet in an armor designed to serve as a tight jacket. While in the armor, he only uses diapers and can only move his extremities. At night, she usually ties her into a sleeping bag and places her in bed with a metal screen cover, keeping her arms and legs immobile, and the investigator believes she sometimes left her in the child's toilet last night.

The researchers concluded that, if Genie voiced or made another sound, his father hit him with a large board he kept in his room. To keep him still, he showed off his teeth, barking and growling like a stray dog, and growing his fingernails to scratch it. If he suspects him of doing something, he does not like him making voices outside the door, and beat him if he believes he continues to do so, instilling an intense and persistent fear of cats and dogs in Genie. No one definitively understands the right reasons for dog-like behavior, though at least one scientist speculates he might consider himself a guard dog and portray the role. As a result, Genie learns to make as little sound as possible and vice versa does not give outward expression. Genie developed a tendency to masturbate in a socially inappropriate context, leading physicians to seriously consider the possibility that Genie's father had made her a victim of sexual harassment or forcing her brother to do so, even though they never found any definite evidence.

Genie's father fed Genie as little as possible and refused to give him solid food, fed only baby food, cereals, Pablum, boiled eggs, and liquids. His father, or when forced, his brother, spooned the food into his mouth as quickly as possible, and if he choked or could not swallow fast enough the person who fed him rubbed his face in his food. Usually this is the only chance he let his wife with Genie, even though he can not feed Genie herself. Genie's mother claims her husband always feeds Genie three times a day but also says that Genie sometimes risks being beaten by making noise when hungry, so researchers believe she often refuses to feed him. In early 1972, Genie's mother told the researchers that at night, if possible, at about 11 pm she quietly tries to give Genie additional food, causing Genie to develop an abnormal sleep pattern in which she sleeps from hours 7 to 11 nights, wake up for a few minutes, and fall asleep again for an additional 6 ¹ / ₂ clock. This pattern continued for several months after being removed from captivity.

Genie's father has a very low tolerance of sound, to the point of refusing to have a television or a radio that works at home. He almost never let his wife or son speak and cruelly beat them if they did it without permission, especially forbidding them to talk to or around Genie. Therefore, the conversation between them was very quiet and unheard by Genie, preventing him from hearing any meaningful language. His father keeps Genie's room very dark, and the only stimuli available are cribs, chairs, curtains in every window, three furniture, and two plastic rain jackets hanging on the wall. On the rare occasion his father allowed him to play with plastic food containers, old thread rolls, TV Guides with lots of cut illustrations, and raincoats. The room had two almost completely fainted windows, which his father had left slightly open; Though the house is away from roads and other homes, he can see the side of the neighbor's house and a few inches of sky, and occasionally hears a neighborhood sound or a neighbor child practicing the piano.

Throughout this time Genie's father hardly ever allowed anyone to leave home, only allowing his son to go to and from school and require him to prove his identity in various ways before entering, and to prevent disobedience he often sat in the living room with a rifle in his lap. He does not allow anyone inside or near the house, and keeps his weapon nearby if anyone comes. No one in the neighborhood knew about the harassment that Genie's dad committed to his family, or realized that Genie's parents had had children other than their sons. Throughout this time, Genie's father kept detailed records that recorded his persecution of his family and his efforts to hide it.

Genie's mother is passive by nature and almost completely blind at the moment. Her husband kept beating her and threatened to kill her if she tried to contact her parents, close friends who live nearby, or the police. Genie's father also forced his son to be silent, giving him instructions on keeping his father's actions secret and beating him with ever increasing frequency and severity, and as he got older, his father forced him to do more of Genie's abuse in the same way. He felt utterly powerless to do anything to stop him and fearful of vengeful revenge for trying to intervene, and on several occasions trying to escape from home. Genie's father believes Genie will die at the age of 12 and promises that, if he survives that age, he will allow his wife to seek outside help for him, but he denies it when Genie is 12 years old and her mother does not take action for another year and half.

Rescue

In October 1970, when Genie was about 13 and 6 months old, Genie's parents had violent arguments in which her mother threatened to quit if she could not call her own parents. Her husband finally relented, and then that day she went with Genie when she came out of the house and went to her parents in Monterey Park; Genie's older brother, then 18 years old, had fled home and lived with his friends. About three weeks later, on November 4, Genie's mother decided to apply for a blind alimony in nearby Temple City, California and bring Genie with him, but because of her blindness, Genie's mother accidentally entered the next public service office. door. The social worker who greeted them immediately felt something was wrong when he saw Genie and was shocked to learn his true age, after predicting of his appearance and behavior that he was about 6 or 7 years old and possibly autistic, and after he and his supervisors questioned Mother Genie and confirmed age Genie they immediately contact the police. Genie's parents were arrested and Genie became a court ward, and due to her physical condition and an almost uncharted state, a court order was immediately issued for Genie to be taken to the Los Angeles Children's Hospital.

After entering Genie at Children's Hospital, David Rigler, a therapist and professor of psychology at the University of Southern California who was chief psychologist at the hospital, and Howard Hansen, then head of the psychiatric division and an early expert on child abuse, took direct control Genie care. The next day they commissioned doctor James Kent, another early lawyer for child abuse awareness, to conduct a first examination of him. Most of the information the doctors got on Genie's early life came from a police investigation of Genie's parents. Even after the conclusion, there were a large number of unresolved questions about Genie's childhood that was never answered by subsequent research.

News of Genie reached the mainstream media on November 17th, receiving much local and national attention, and the photo authority released by Genie significantly sparked public interest in her. Although Genie's father refused to talk to the police or the media, many people went to try to meet him, which he found very difficult to handle. On November 20, the morning before a scheduled court appearance on child abuse charges, he committed suicide with a gunshot. Police found two suicide notes, aimed at his son who said, "Be a good boy, I love you", and another directed to the police. One note - the source of the conflict - containing the declaration, "The world will never understand."

After Genie's father committed suicide and the hospital staff focused exclusively on Genie and his mother; Genie's older brother said that his mother immediately began to devote all his love and attention to Genie, and he left the Los Angeles area. At the request of Hansen, attorney John Miner, an acquaintance of Hansen, represents Genie's mother in court. She told the court that the beatings from her husband and her total blindness had prevented her from protecting her children. The allegations against him were dropped, and he received counseling from the Children's Hospital; Hansen is the direct superior of his therapist.

Characteristics and personality

James Kent stated that an early examination of Genie revealed the extent of the most severe child abuse cases he had ever encountered, and he became very pessimistic about Genie's prognosis. Genie is very pale and very malnourished, standing 4a, 6ft at (1.37m) and weighing only 59pounds (27kg), and has two almost full teeth in her mouth and a distended stomach. The binding harness his father used caused thick calluses and heavy black bruises on his ass, which took several weeks to heal. A series of X-rays found Genie to have moderate valent coxa in both hips and small ribs, and doctors determined her bone age to be 11 years old. Although preliminary tests confirmed he had normal eyesight in his eyes, he could not focus on anything more than 10 feet (3 m) apart, according to the dimensions of the room his father kept.

Genie's genetic skill is very weak; he can not stand upright or fully straighten one of his limbs, and has very little endurance. His movements are very hesitant and unsteady and his characteristic "bunny walk", in which he holds his hand in front like a claw while walking, suggests extreme difficulty with sensory processing and the inability to integrate visual and tactile information. Kent was somewhat surprised to find his fine motor skills were significantly better, by determining they were at a level of about two years. He can not chew and suffer from severe dysphagia, is not capable of swallowing solid or even soft foods and can barely swallow fluids. While eating, he holds whatever he can not suck in his mouth until his saliva breaks it, and if this is too long, he spits it out and strikes it with his fingers. He also completely wet the bed, and does not respond to extreme temperatures.

Doctors find it very difficult to test or estimate the mental age of Genie or his cognitive abilities, but in two attempts they find Genie scored at the age of 13 months. To the surprise of the doctors, he was very interested in exploring new environmental stimuli, although the objects seemed more appealing than people. He seemed very curious about the sounds he did not recognize, and Kent noticed how much he liked their search for their sources. The doctor noticed his extreme fear of cats and dogs from the beginning, but at first he thought this was because he was incapable of rational thinking; they did not see their true origin until many years later.

From the beginning Genie showed interest in many hospital staff members, often approaching and walking with strangers altogether, but Kent said he did not seem to distinguish between people and showed no signs of attachment to anyone, including his mother and brother. At first he would not allow anyone to touch him, quickly avoided any physical contact, and while he sat on his mother's lap when he asked him to stay very tense and rise as quickly as possible; the hospital staff wrote that her mother seemed totally unaware of Genie's emotions and actions. Genie behavior is usually very antisocial, and proved very difficult to be controlled by others. Regardless of where he is he constantly salivates and spits, and keeps sniffing and blowing his nose at anything that happens to be around him. He has no sense of private ownership, often pointing to or picking up something he wants from others, or situational awareness. The doctor writes that he acts on impulse regardless of setting, notably noting that he often masturbates openly and sometimes tries to involve older men in it.

From the beginning Genie showed little response to nonverbal information, including gestures and facial expressions from others, and made pretty good eye contact. However, his behavior is completely expressionless or visible body language, and he can only get some basic needs. He clearly distinguishes speech from other sounds but remains almost completely silent and unresponsive to speech, and any response he gives is to accompany nonverbal signals. When angry, Genie will attack herself, but remain expressionless and never cry or voice; some accounts say he can not cry at all. To make noise, he will push chairs or other similar objects. The blast initially happens very often and there are no visible triggers - Kent writes that he never tries to show the source of his anger - and continues until someone distracts him or he is physically exhausted, at which point he will return to being silent and non-expressive.

The linguist then discovered that, in January 1971, Jin showed only his own name, the name of several others, and about 15-20 words, and his active vocabulary at the time consisted of two phrases, "stop" and "no longer". They could not determine the extent of his expressive or receptive vocabulary at any point before January 1971, and therefore did not know whether he had obtained any or all of these words during the previous two months. After observing Genie for some time they concluded that he was not selectively mute, and the tests found no physiological or psychological explanations for lack of language. Since his medical records do not contain any clear indication of mental disability, the researchers determined that, due to the extreme isolation and lack of language exposure during childhood, it lacked a first language.

Preliminary assessment

Within a month after Genie entered the Children's Hospital, Jay Shurley, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at the University of Oklahoma and specialist in extreme social isolation, paid close attention to his case. Shurley notes that Genie is the most severe case of isolation he has ever learned or heard, which he maintained more than 20 years later. Over the next year and a half he comes with three three-day visits for daily observation and for sleep studies, hoping to determine whether Genie is autistic, whether he has suffered brain damage, and whether he does or does not. born mentally retarded. Shurley concluded he was not autistic, which the researchers then agreed to; She notes that she is experiencing high levels of emotional distress, but writes that her desire for new stimuli and the lack of defense mechanisms are unusual behaviors in autism.

Shurley found no signs of brain damage but observed some persistent abnormalities in Genie's sleep, including significantly reduced (and much larger than average in duration) amounts of REM sleep and a very high number of sleep spindles. He finally concludes that Genie has been mentally retarded since birth, especially since the number of sleep spindles has increased significantly. Other scientists who follow this case are still divided on this issue. Later, for example, Susan Curtiss firmly stated that, although Genie obviously had serious emotional difficulties, she could not be retarded. He pointed out that Genie made progress in progress for each calendar year after his rescue, which would not be expected if his condition was innate, and that some aspects of Genie language were acquired unlike normally mentally handicapped people. Instead, he believed that Genie was born with at least average intelligence, and that his childhood abuse and isolation had made him functionally disabled.

Maps Genie (feral child)

Fixed hospital

In his first meeting with Genie, James Kent initially observed no reaction from him but ultimately drew a small amount of verbal and nonverbal responses with a small doll. Playing with this doll and the like quickly became his favorite activity and, apart from his tantrums, contributed most of the few times he expressed any emotion during the early part of his stay. Within a few days he began to learn to dress himself and start voluntarily using the toilet, but he continued to suffer incontinence during the night and daylight which only slowly improved. Kent quickly realizes there will be a large number of people working with Genie, and is worried that he will not learn to form a normal relationship unless someone is a steady presence in his life, so he decides to accompany him for a walk and to all of his promises.

Genie quickly began to grow and gain weight and continue to be more confident in his movements, and in December he had good eye-hand coordination and was much better at focusing his eyes. She quickly develops a sense of ownership, hoarding objects she likes for reasons unknown to doctors, and gets very upset when someone touches or transfers whatever she collects. He takes all kinds of stuff but mainly looks for colorful plastic objects, which the doctor speculates is because these are the items he accesses as a child, and he does not seem to care whether they are toys or ordinary containers but are mainly looking for beach buckets. During the first few months of her stay, giving her one of these things can take her out of her anger.

After a few weeks, Genie became more responsive to others, and soon began to notice the people who spoke, but at first she remained non-expressive and unclear whether she responded to verbal or nonverbal stimuli. Soon Genie showed a clear response to the nonverbal signals, and her nonverbal communication skills quickly became incredible. A month later Genie began to become a familiar person with adults, first with Kent and soon afterwards with other hospital staff. She was clearly happy when someone she knew visited and sometimes worked very hard to get someone to stay, expressing disappointment if she failed; because there is no obvious reason, his salutations are much more energetic than his relatively mild unhappiness when people leave. After the country rejected the accusations against Genie's mother, she began visiting Genie twice a week, and for several months they continued to grow better in interacting with each other.

Around the same time it was noted that Genie was happy to accidentally drop or destroy small objects, and enjoy watching others do the same with something she plays. Kent wrote that he did the same series of actions several times and that seemed to reduce internal tension for him, and therefore thought he was doing this to control a traumatic childhood experience. He also showed a deep interest in the classical piano music played in front of him, which the researchers believed was because he could hear piano music during his childhood. He does not have the same reaction to the recording, and if someone plays something other than classical music he will turn the sheet music into a book he knows has pieces he likes.

In December 1970, Kent and other hospital staff working with Genie saw it as a potential case study. That month David Rigler obtained a small grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to conduct a preliminary study of him, and began organizing a research team to make a bigger request. In January 1971, doctors gave the Gesell Gene Evaluation and found that Genie was at the developmental level of children aged 1 to 3 years, noting that he had shown significant developmental disparities. The following month psychologist Jeanne Block and her husband Jack Block evaluate Genie, and her score ranges from under 2 to 3 years, on some components, normal levels of 12 to 13 years. Around the same time, the doctor noted that he was very interested in the person who spoke and that he tried to imitate some speech sounds.

In April and May 1971, Genie's score on the International Performance Scale Leiter test had increased dramatically, with his overall mental age at the age of 4 years 9 months, but on individual components he still showed very high. level scatter. His progress with language accelerated, and the doctor noticed that the words he used showed the mental categorization of objects and situations advanced enough and focused on objective properties to levels not normally found in children. Around that time, when a small earthquake struck Los Angeles, he ran scared into the kitchen and quickly pointed it out to some of the hospital chefs he was friends with, marking the first time he sought comfort from others and the first time he was so easily spoken. However, he still has difficulty with many people; at her birthday party, she gets very anxious when all the guests are present that she has to go out with Rigler to calm down.

During the next part of Genie's stay at the hospital she also began to engage in physical play with the adults, and finally began to enjoy giving and receiving hugs. He continues to show frustration and anger, but in response to situations that will elicit similar reactions in most young children, and he can sulk for long periods of time despite receiving objects that he loves. In April 1971, to the great surprise of the doctors, he started attacking another girl because he felt he had a hospital gown worn by another girl. This is his first exhibition of a sense of ownership of the things he thinks are his but impartial and the first time he directs his outrage, but he does not completely stop hurting himself when angry.

Brain Test

Beginning in January 1971 scientists conducted a series of neurolinguistic tests on Genie to determine and monitor the course and the extent of its mental development, making it the first child to lose language to undergo detailed studies of his brain. All of Genie's brains are physically intact and Shurley's sleep study finds sleep patterns typical of the dominant left hemisphere man, which directs scientists to believe he is most likely right-handed. Over the following years, several tests of his handling support this conclusion, as well as his observations in everyday situations. Based on their initial tests, doctors suspect Genie's brain is very dominant in the right hemisphere.

In early March of that year, neuroscientists Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima came from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies to administer their own series of brain tests on Genie. The audiometric test confirms that he has regular hearing in both ears, but on a series of dichotic listening tests, Bellugi and Klima discover that he identifies the language sound with 100% accuracy in his left ear while correctly responding only to the level of probability in his right ear. The extreme level of asymmetry in these tests is only documented in patients with separate brains or who have undergone hemisferectomy as adults. When they provide monaural tests for both languages ​​and non-languages, he answers with 100% accuracy in both ears, which is normal. In a non-linguistic dicotile listening test he showed little preference for identifying the non-language sounds in his left ear, which is typical for the left-handed person and helps rule out the possibility of his brain just reversed in dominance for language.

Based on these results, Bellugi and Klima believe that Genie has evolved as a left-handed person until his father began to isolate him. They attribute the imbalance between Genie's parts to the fact that Genie's genetic input as a child is almost exclusively visual and tactile, stimulating dominated functions controlled in the right hemisphere of the right-handed person, and although these inputs are minimal enough to cause their lateralisation to the right hemisphere. Therefore they believe that since Genie has no linguistic input during her childhood, she has no specialization at all and as a result her language functions are never too late for that. Since Genie accurately distinguishes speech sounds with the right hemisphere, they think the language function has been validated there.

Interest as a case study and funding grant

At the time of entering Genie to the Children's Hospital there was extensive discussion in both academic and lay circles about the hypothesis of Noam Chomsky, who first suggested that language is innate human and human beings different from all other animals, and Eric Lenneberg, who in 1967 hypothesized that humans have a critical period for language acquisition and define the end as early puberty. Although interested in this hypothesis, before the discovery of Genie there is no way to test it. Although ancient and medieval texts make several references to language robbery experiments, modern researchers labeled such ideas as "Prohibited Trials", which are impossible to do for ethical reasons. Incidentally the movie FranÃÆ'§ois Truffaut The Wild Child , which records the life of Victor of Aveyron in the years immediately after his discovery and the efforts of Jean Marc Gaspard Itard to teach him the language and integrate it into society, also aired in the United States just a week after Genie's rescue. The film was a huge success, and increasingly increased public interest in cases of children who experienced extreme abuse or isolation.

Requested by coincidence this time, David Rigler led a team of scientists who sought and obtained a three-year grant from NIMH to study Genie in May 1971. On the advice of Jean Butler, Genie's special education teacher at the hospital, they screened The Wild Child during their first encounter, and the scientists later said the film had a direct and profound impact. Various suggestions for how to work with Genie make it very difficult for researchers to suggest a coherent direction. To the surprise of several scientists involved in the grant meeting, Rigler decided the main focus of the study would be to test the Chomsky and Lenneberg hypotheses and select UCLA linguistics professor Victoria Fromkin to lead linguistic evaluations. The research team also plans to continue the periodic evaluation of Genie's psychological development in various aspects of his life. From the moment he entered the Hospital the researcher had tried to keep his identity hidden, and it was around this time that they adopted Genie's pseudonym for him, referencing the similarities between the genie coming out of the lamps without the childhood and suddenly the Genie appearing into a childhood childhood then.

Initial research

Soon after the NIMH accepted the grant proposal, in late May 1971, Susan Curtiss began her work on Genie's case as a linguistic graduate student under Victoria Fromkin, and for the remainder of Genie's stay at Children's Hospital Curtiss met Genie almost daily. Curtiss quickly recognized Genie's strong nonverbal communication skills, writing that complete strangers often bought something for him because they felt he wanted it and that it was always the kind of thing he liked best. Curtiss concluded that Genie had learned many languages ​​but that was not yet at a testable level, so he decided to dedicate the next few months to getting to know Genie and get his friendship. Over the next month, he and Genie are fast attached to each other.

At about the same time Curtiss started his work, doctors reevaluated Genie on a Leiter scale and measured it on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, which puts an approximate mental age between 5- and 8 years with a very high degree of spreading. Doctors believe that Genie has learned to use gestalt perception to determine the number of objects in a group, and at the beginning of the case study he can accurately distinguish the correct number of up to 7 objects through gestalt perception. Child psychologist David Elkind, who was involved in the grant meeting, evaluated Genie in May 1971 and reported that he was in a concrete operational stage, stating that he understood permanent objects and could engage in deferred imitations. Genie's physical health has also improved steadily, and now his endurance has improved dramatically. His social behavior is still very abnormal, and doctors are very concerned that he hardly ever interacts with people his age, but time evaluation shows optimism about his prognosis.

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First foster home

In June 1971, Jean Butler got permission to take Genie on a day trip to his home at Country Club Park, Los Angeles. Towards the end of the month, after one of the trips, Butler told the hospital that he (Butler) may have contracted rubella, which Genie exposes. The hospital staff were reluctant to provide parental care to Butler and were very skeptical of his story, deeply suspicious he had concocted it as part of an attempt to take over as Genie's guardian and primary caregiver, but decided that placing Genie in a hospital isolation ward potentially severely damaged social development and psychologically, so they agreed to temporarily quarantine at Butler's home. Butler, who had no children, was not married, and at his own time, then petitioned for Genie's care, and though the authorities objected to the hospital extending Genie's stay as they considered the matter.

Butler's Observation

Immediately after moving with Butler, Genie began showing the first signs of reaching puberty, marking a dramatic increase in overall physical health and definitively placing a critical period proposed by Lenneberg for language acquisition. Butler continued to observe and document Genie hoarding, notably noting that Genie collected and stored dozens of fluid containers in his room. Although he could not see the reason for Genie's deep fear of cats and dogs, after watching Butler and the man he dated - who is a retired professor and psychologist at Southern California University - tried to help him overcome by watching the episode of the Lassie television series > with him and give him a battery-powered dog toy. Butler wrote that Genie could finally tolerate the fenced dog, but no progress with the cat.

In his journal, Butler writes that he has made Genie stop attacking himself when angry and has taught Genie to express his anger through words or by hitting objects. Butler also claimed that, shortly after moving with him, Genie became more talkative and that he had made substantial progress with his language mastery. In an early August letter to Jay Shurley, he wrote that the man he dated had also noticed and commented on improvements in his language. Genie incontinence gradually improved until, at the end of her stay, she was almost completely continent.

Custody dispute

Genie's mother continued to visit Genie, and around the time Genie moved with Butler, Genie's mother received a corrective cataract surgery that restored most of her vision. During Genie's stay, Butler had the man she dated to live with, believing authorities would see better pending apps if she offered a home with two parents. However, Butler began fiercely to refuse a visit from the researchers, who he felt demanding too much of Genie, and began to disparage them as a "Genie team", a nickname that was trapped. Butler in particular seems to dislike James Kent and Susan Curtiss, preventing the two from visiting during the last part of Genie's stay, and also has some disputes with Rigler, though he says their dispute is never personal or as hot as he describes them.

Researchers believe Butler has good intentions for Genie, but criticizes Butler's unwillingness to work with them and thinks he negatively affects Genie's care and case studies. They strongly denied Butler's claim to push Genie too hard, arguing that he enjoyed the test and could rest as he pleased, and both Curtiss and Kent firmly denied Butler's allegations against them. The research team sees Butler as a troubled person, given his long-known reputation known among colleagues and superiors. Some scientists, including Curtiss and Howard Hansen, remember Butler openly declaring that he hopes Genie will make him famous, and Curtiss especially remembers Butler repeatedly declaring his intention to become the next "Anne Sullivan".

In mid-August, California authorities informed Butler that they rejected his plea for parenting. To what extent, if any, the Children's Hospital affecting the decision is unclear. Rigler maintained several times that although scientists objected both the hospital and its staff did not intervene, and said the decision of the authorities to surprise him. The Nova documentary about Genie, however, states that Butler's refusal came partly on hospital recommendations; There is evidence that many hospital authorities, including Hansen, feel that Butler's ability to care for Genie is inadequate, and hospital policies prohibit his staff members from becoming foster parents of his patients. Butler himself was convinced the hospital had opposed its application so that Genie could be moved to a more conducive place for research, and wrote that Genie, having been informed of the decision, was very upset and said, "No, no, no."

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Second home

In early August, Hansen advised Rigler that he took Genie's custody if the authorities rejected Butler's plea, and Rigler initially rejected the idea but decided to discuss it with his wife Marilyn; Marilyn underwent postgraduate training as a social worker and recently completed a bachelor's degree in human development, and previously worked at a children's school and Head Start Program. The Riglers have three teenagers of their own, which Jay Shurley says makes them think of themselves as guardians more suited to Jin than Butler. They finally decided that, if no one else, they were willing to temporarily take care of Genie until another suitable foster home was available. Rigler acknowledged that the proposed arrangement would obviously make him have a double relationship with him, but the Children's Hospital and the authorities decided that, in the absence of other adequate options, they would agree to raise parents while Riglers Genie.

On the same day Genie returned to the hospital, the Riglers told Genie to be moved to their home in Los Feliz. David Rigler said that he and Marilyn initially requested the arrangement for a maximum of three months, but Genie finally lived with them for almost four years. When Genie moved on with the Riglers, Marilyn became his teacher, David Rigler decided to take over the role of Genie's main therapist from James Kent, and the research team immediately went on to observe and evaluate. Riglers remained Genie's primary nurse during this time, but with the approval of Genie's mother and his psychological authority appointed John Miner as a legal guardian who did not compensate in 1972.

Relationship with her mother

While Genie lives with Riglers, her mother usually meets her once a week in a park or restaurant, and their relationship gets stronger. Though the Riglers never showed antipathy to Genie's mother, their attempts to be polite to him inadvertently came as a condescension, and years later Marilyn said she felt uncomfortable acting as mother to Genie at home with the presence of Genie's real mother. With the exception of Jay Shurley, who felt that other scientists did not treat him the same, Genie's mother did not get along with the other researchers, some of whom disliked her for her apathy during Genie's childhood. Scientists speculate that Genie's mother gave them a really cool welcome because they reminded him of his earlier slowness on behalf of his children, and David Rigler also thought he was denying about Genie's condition and his hand. Curtiss writes that Genie's mother often gave contradictory statements about her marriage life and Genie's childhood, apparently saying what she thought people wanted to hear, which the research team believes is for fear of rejection or ostracism for telling the truth.

Jean Butler, who married shortly after the authorities removed Genie from his home and began using his marriage name, Ruch, keep in touch with Genie's mother. Although Genie's mother later remembered that most of their conversations had been superficial, they kept getting along well. Throughout Genie's stay with the Riglers, Ruch constantly accused the researchers of malicious tests, deliberately forcing her mother out of her life, and abusing the available grant money, all the research teams consistently and decisively disputed. Genie's mother steadily began to listen more to Ruch, and finally felt the research team marginalized it.

Testing and observation of the research team

Behavior

For no apparent reason, Genie's incontinence reappeared, and was very severe during the first few weeks after he moved but remained at a lower level for several months. Unlike the writings of Butler, Riglers observes Genie still acting angry at himself and noting that certain situations in particular, such as spilling a container of liquids, sends him into a raging behavior, which the doctor attributed to him has been beaten for this act as a child. They also wrote that Genie was terrified of their dogs, and after seeing him run straight away and hide. The research team recorded his lectures far more discontinuous and hesitant than Ruch described, writing that Genie is so rarely spoken and that, during the first three months of his stay, almost always uses a single word utterance. Unless she sees something that scares her both speech and behavior shows a lot of latency, often a few minutes delayed, for no apparent reason, and she still does not react to temperature. He continues to have a very difficult time controlling his impulses, often engaging in highly anti-social and destructive behavior.

Shortly after Genie's departure, Marilyn taught her to direct her frustration outward by generally "having a match." Since Genie sought praise for her performance, Marilyn began painting Genie's nails and telling her that she did not look good when she scratched herself, and when the situation arose that especially annoyed Genie Marilyn tried to verbally aggravate her. Genie gradually gains more control over his response and with encouragement can verbally express disappointment, though he never completely stops raging or engaging in self-harm, and can sometimes indicate his level of anger; depending on whether he is very angry or just frustrated, he either shakes a finger or swings his hand.

Although scientists do not yet know the reason for Genie's fear of cats and dogs, Riglers use their puppy in an attempt to fit him in, and after about two weeks he completely overcame his fear of their dog but continues to be very afraid of unknown cats. and dogs. Marilyn worked with Genie to help overcome her difficulties while chewing and swallowing, which took about four months. He also tried to help Jin become more in tune with his body sensations, and by the end of 1973 Curtiss recorded the first example of Genie that showed a temperature sensitivity. Although Genie deliberately did the most likely in both Curtiss 'and Riglers' estimates, throughout his stay his physical health improved substantially.

At first Genie usually does not listen to anyone unless someone directly calls her or if Curtiss plays classical music on the piano, and if someone talks to her, she hardly ever acknowledges anyone and usually walks away after a while. In an attempt to get Genie to listen to others, Curtiss began reading children's stories to him, and at first he seemed to be uninvolved, but one day in mid-October 1971 Curtiss saw that Genie clearly listened and responded. After that he noticed people even when they did not speak directly to or about him. She becomes more friendly in her interaction with people and becomes more responsive, though she still often shows no clear signs that she's heard someone. His reaction to most stimuli becomes faster, but even at the end of his stay, he sometimes takes a few minutes before responding to someone.

After several months of living with the Riglers, Genie's behavior and social skills improved until he began studying child-care schools and then public schools for mentally retarded children. Riglers also teaches him basic self-help skills, including simple tasks such as ironing, sewing machines, and preparing simple meals for himself. He made great progress by controlling himself both at home and in public, and although it was very difficult to prevent socially inappropriate masturbation he almost completely stopped him at the end of his stay. In February 1973, Curtiss noted for the first time that Genie shared something with him, and while he continued to take something from others, his response clearly showed that he knew he should not.

During the time Genie lived with the Riglers, everyone who worked with him reported that his mood improved significantly and he was clearly satisfied with his life. By the end of June 1975, David Rigler wrote that Genie continued to make significant strides in every field tested by scientists, and contemporary accounts of Curtiss expressed optimism about Genie's social development. Nevertheless, even in the middle of 1975 most social interactions with him remained abnormal in quality. Scientists write that, while overall attitudes and interactions with others have improved significantly, many aspects of his behavior remain the hallmark of the un-socialized.

Language

Curtiss began a thorough and active test of the language of Genie in October 1971, when he and Fromkin decided that his linguistic abilities were sufficient to produce useful results. Linguists designed their tests to measure Genie's vocabulary and its acquisition of various aspects of grammar, including syntax, phonology, and morphology. They also continue to observe him in everyday conversations to gauge what pragmatic language he gets. The research team considers its language acquisition to be an important part of their larger goal to help it unite itself into society, so even though they want to observe what vocabulary and grammar can learn, Jinie herself, because their obligations sometimes step in to help.

Throughout the linguist's tests, the size of Genie's vocabulary and the speed with which he developed went beyond all anticipation. By mid-1975 he could accurately mention most of the objects he encountered, and clearly knew more words than he used to use. In contrast, Genie is much more difficult with learning and using basic grammar. He clearly mastered certain grammatical principles, and his recipe understanding consistently remained significant before production, but his grammatical acquisition rate was much slower than usual and resulted in enormous differences between his vocabulary and grammar. In everyday conversations, Genie usually only speaks in short speech and inconsistently uses what grammar he knows, although the use of grammar remains better in imitation, and his conversational competence increases sharply throughout his stay but remains very low, which according to scientists are not surprising and suggested. is proof that the ability to engage in conversation is a separate skill from a known language.

In many cases, scientists use the development of Genie language to help them measure their overall psychological state. For example, Genie consistently confuses the pronouns of you and me , often saying, "Mama loves you" while pointing to herself, to which Curtiss manifests Genie's inability to distinguish who she is from whom others. Scientists especially note that he often understands conceptual information even if he does not have a grammar to express it, which they write shows that he has greater cognitive ability than most children in the same language acquisition phase. In some cases, learning a new aspect of language plays a direct role in its development. At that time Genie learned to say "May I have [an example]" as a ritual phrase he also learned how to use money, and Curtiss wrote that this sentence gave Genie the ability to demand payment and encourage his desire to make money, causing him to take a more active role in performing activities that will result in rewards.

At the beginning of the test, Genie's voice was still very high-pitched and soft, believed by linguists for some of his abnormal expressive language, and the scientists worked very hard to fix it. Her voice gradually became somewhat lower and louder, though it remained unusually high and soft, and she began to articulate words better. Despite this he consistently removes or replaces the sound, making it very difficult to understand. Scientists believe that Genie often does not know his pronunciation, but on other occasions he produces a haphlology that is clearly deliberate and will only speak more clearly if explicitly, explicitly requested; Curtiss linked the latter with Jin trying to say as little as possible and still be understood. Eventually Curtiss and Marilyn convince Genie to stop trying her most extreme haplology, but she continues to remove the sound if possible, causing the linguist to follow the case to call Genie "the Great Abbreviator".

A contemporary paper with case studies shows that Genie is studying new vocabulary and grammar during his entire stay with Riglers, and is optimistic about his potential for various degrees. Even so, even in mid-1975 there were still many pieces of language that he had not yet gained. Furthermore, although he can understand and produce longer speech, he still speaks in short phrases like "Ball's Hospital". Despite the clear increase in the competence of Genie's conversations, the scientists wrote that it remains very low compared to normal people. Curtiss and Fromkin have finally concluded that since Genie did not learn the first language before the critical period ends, he can not fully acquire the language.

Remembering past events

Sometime during the early to mid 1972, the Riglers heard Genie say, "Daddy hit a big stick. for himself, indicating that he could talk about his life before he started learning the language. During the remainder of his stay with the Riglers, he will keep repeating, "Daddy hit" for himself, and before Riglers works with Genie to understand the concept of death, he often asks where his father is, fearing that he will come to get his. Although he does not talk to other people about his childhood he often gives researchers valuable new information when he does, and scientists try to get Genie to tell them as much as possible. As he learns more languages, he gradually starts talking about his father and his treatment of him in more detail.

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Nonverbal communication

In contrast to his linguistic abilities, Genie's nonverbal communication continues to excel. He created his own gesture system and waved certain words when he said them, and also acted out of events that he could not express in language. Initially he would only draw if someone asked for it, but as long as he stayed with the Riglers he started using pictures to communicate if he could not explain things with words. In addition to his own drawings he often uses drawings from magazines to relate to his daily experiences, da

Source of the article : Wikipedia