Genie the Wild Child

Genie, the second case of wild child was found in a room tied to a potty chair. Genie was kept in a room locked away because her father thought she was retarded at birth until the age of 13, when she was rescued by a social worker. She was locked away from normal civilization and any type of socialization, and she was beaten for making noises. Genie was an infant trapped in a 13 year old body, because she could only make infant like sounds and no words or sentences. Genie's brain waves were adnormal, but doctors believed that she could learn. They began teaching and trying to develop her brain through forming relationships. Genie begin to speak and say words; but they were difficult to understand. Genie progress gave doctors hope that she would get better. Another known case about a boy name Victor, that was documented before Genie was the blueprint of how to handle Genie's case. Victor was raised in the woods and counld speak or say any words. Victor was found naked and with scares all over his body. Doctors believed they could civilize Victor and that he had become retarded because of the way he was raised in the wild with lack of social forms and civilization. In the video there is an example of object permanence; the doctor held food in a mirror while Victor was looking in the mirror. Victor tried to get the food out of the mirror until he realized it was not in the mirror but in the doctor's hand behind him. Victor was known as the Wild Child and there was a movie made about him and his treatment, that aired a week after Genie was found. Genie is now 14 years of age and the doctors wondered if she would ever learn to talk normally. The doctors believed that if the first language is not acquired by puberty, it would be to late for Genie to develop language. Genie was very attached to ballons and different color threads; and wanted to learn words for different objects. Genie moved into the home of her language doctor and Genie began hording containers of liquid,