Danielle As A Feral Child

When reading the article, the reader is first introduced to a seven year old girl named Danielle who is faced to live with terrible conditions for the rest of her life. Danielle weighed 46 pounds, and was malnourished and anemic when found by authorities. Danielle’s mental healthiness was of no difference. (Her caseworker determined that she had never been to school, never seen a doctor. She didn't know how to hold a doll, didn't understand peek-a-boo. "Due to the severe neglect," a doctor would write, "the child will be disabled for the rest of her life.") Danielle’s severe disorder had evolved to point where Danielle felt no pain or emotion; she couldn’t express her ideas or communicate. The neglect she faced ultimately led her to develop environmental autism. (The most extraordinary thing about Danielle, Armstrong said, was her lack of engagement with people, with anything. "There was no light in her eye, no response or recognition. . . . We saw a little girl who didn't even respond to hugs or affection. Even a child with the most severe autism responds to those.")
Danielle’s case does indeed prove it is essential for children to learn and develop language at the early years of life in which the brain is increasingly developing. (In the 1960s, psychologist Harry Harlow put groups of infant rhesus monkeys in a room with two artificial mothers. One made of wire, dispensed food. The other, of terrycloth, extended cradled arms. Though they were starving, the baby monkeys all climbed into the warm cloth arms. "Primates need comfort even more than they need food," Armstrong