h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I remember a similar story in a much more recent time (1970ish) with an American girl called 'Genie'. She was locked in her room and was never spoken to or allowed to make a sound all hre life. She could not speak at all when she was found at 12 years old.

This demonstrated that language is not entirely innate in a human but still did not shed much light on whether the potential for language is. She did learn some words after that but very slowly which also showed that a vast amount of learning happens at a young age.

Her mother did visit her but the girl was not allowed to talk to her. This seemed to demonstarte that it is also essential for to way conversation to take place before language can be acquired.

Does anyone else have any details on 'Genie'?

I haven't heard of this, but it appears to be a very sad case indeed. Small children are remarkable in terms of their ability to grasp new words, so I can understand exactly what you say.

If you can find out more, maybe we can add this to the entry.

I recently watched a documentary on Genie in my Sociology class. The documentary was done by the PBS America series called NOVA. It was really very informative and sad, but the worst part was that as her doctors lost funding to study her, Genie was returned to the mother that had isolated her in the first place. Soon after her mother got custody (the mother having been aquitted of all abuse charges) she realized that she could not handle the child and Genie was placed in foster homes. She faced terrible abuses in some of these homes and when she was older she was placed in a halfway house for adults. My soc. Professor did not know if Genie was still alive. The reason I posted this was because I was looking for more information on this woman. I feel a great injustice was done to her by the government discontinuing the funding for her study and the legal battle that placed her once again into abusive homes. If you have any information on this woman, please post!!!!! If she is still alive I think she would be in California. So far I have not been able to locate much information here in America on this case.

Ok, went to the NOVA pbs website and found a transcript of the show. The title is "Secret of the Wild Child".

There was a recent article about Feral Children in the Irish Times including a story about Genie. It is described in a recently published book. I will try to find out the name of this book for you.

Yes, the story of Genie is appalling, and one of the saddest stories imaginable. It is recounted in the book "Savage Girls And Wild Boys: A History Of Feral Children" by Michael Newton. It has yet to be released in Europe, but I think it is already on sale in the US.

She was discovered at the age of 14. She had been tied to a chair since the age of 20 months. Nobody ever spoke to her and she was never showed any friendly human attention. Her brother and father would bark at her. Her blind mother would feed her hurriedly and would punish her if she made a sound. When she was found, she could barely walk, could not talk and in fact made no sound what-so-ever as she was afraid of being punished. After intensive speech therapy, Genie was able to use many words and combine them into short sentences and simple phrases. However, she never learnt how to carry on a coherent conversation as her sentences didn't always make sense. She didn't understand the principle of play e.g. she would rub her face to a ball rather than kick or throw the ball. Genie began to get attached to the linguists, psychologists, doctors and other experts that were involved in her case. However, soon her mother regained custody of her. Her mother the proceeded to sue the doctors etc... for "experimenting" on Genie. Genie was shunted from one foster home to the next where she was abused and soon stopped talking all together. Last heard: she is in a home for adults who are unable to take care of themselves...somewhere in USA.

My Society: Change and Challenge class in school studied feral children in one unit, and Genie was mentioned in the text book,which unfortunately don't have with me right now. I remember some details about why she was locked up though; it won't help much in the way of finding her or anything, but I thought it was a little relevant.

Genie's mother got pregnant out of wedlock, and when her strict father found out he refused to have anything to do with the child. That's the story behind why she was imprisoned. It's very sad...

~Thanya D

Another thought: The textbook also mentioned a recent case (last 20-30 years?) in which a young girl was found in Hong Kong in a pig sty, and had been raised by the pigs. She communicated like a pig, and her mannerisms were pig-like too (i.e. rolling in the mud etc.).

'Genie' was not conceived outside of marriage. She was the fourth child of married parents. Two of their previous children had died as a result of neglect and exposure. 'Genie's' mother, however, was severly visually impaired and was almost definitely the victim of violence and abuse from her husband who was the instigator and main perpetrator of 'Genie's' abuse. Charges of 'wilful abuse' brought against her in 1970 were all dropped.

Genie was studied by a UCLA researcher named Susan Curtiss. You can find all the information about Genie in Dr. Curtiss's book, titled Genie: A Psycholinguistic Study. It's published by New York Academic Press

Apropos of feral children:- I was at a military hospital in Germany circa 1950, when a group of children were confined in the psychiatric ward. They were survivors of a concentration camp; who had been living wild in the mountains. They were from at least three different countries, and I believe that two of the girls were gypsies. One of the boys stabbed a fork into the back of my hand when I attempted to examine a cut on the face of the other. They had lived wild for 5 years by foraging from local farms. They had developed some sort of lingua franca to communicate with each other; but would not attempt to speak with anyone outside of their group. One of my friends escorted them to Frankfurt a Main, where they were handed over to an American priest. My friend told me that the priest had about twenty of these children, and was trying to take them to America. I have often wondered what happened to them.

There is some information about Genie, and details of other resources that further details, at:

http://www.feralchildren.com

http://www.feralchildren.com/en/children.php

Many brief histories with links

Genie, the feral child found at 13 years of age, had spent all of her life confined to a room usually strapped to a potty, was never properly spoken to, and beaten by her farther when ever she spoke. She never had the chance to learn language. she was found a psychologist called Curtis; he used Genie as a physiological experiment so even though she had been rescued never really was loved and had attachment so ethically she was neglected by the people that found her.

there is an actual site which gives you updates on genie. Last entry was that genie was still alive today i think it can be found either on the google website or yahoo website search engines. But on both of these search engines ther is alot more information about genie on them and transcripts from the television documentary which was shown on the discovery channel...
Hope this was helpful to you all
lilmonkies

The story goes,that Genie is in adult care somewhere in Los Angeles,southern California.
I feel that a huge injustice has been done here,by the authorities and i pledge with all my heart for the people on this message board to get together and help this poor girl find the love and the family she so dearly deserves.... there must be something we can do to help her.
Lets not let this tragedy be swept under the carpet,like in so many cases by the Government.I see this child as a symbol of my own lifes struggle for freedom and as an example of how many of our worlds children are treated.Please someone help!

It is very obvious that the human race is just one step out of the animal world. And not just because of our "intelligence" but mostly because of the world in which we live.

Society makes many many rules to which most people judge themselves and others, but we are all products of nature with or without president Bush. And for all that it's worth, nothing you do is done by accident, you were programmed by nature to act the way you act, so why doubt mother nature and follow someone like our president?

With this idea in mind I see Genie as another victim of this brutal society. We are so much animal that most people don't even see it. Genie is for me the living proof of human nature, we are no super race, well at least not in the way our leaders think. Genie proves that the human spirit is incredibly strong and flexible.

I hope I will be able to meet her one day.

I am paranormal and I'm glad to have a gift that alows me to feel what others feel, emotion and opinion. She will probably be able to communicate this way, maybe I can let her understand there is a love.

I simply couldn't believe that someone who needs so much love, get's thrown away by this society like so many of us. But with her it's brutal, this is the turning point where Genie was more human than the people that dumped her like old garbage...

For the past few days in my sociology class i've been doing a case study on Genie. She is alive today, in california in a adult mental ward. Although they did find out that she was infact not mentally retarded she does need continous care. Since her government funding stopped the 'Genie team' was unable to have such a role in her life. Then months later her Mother sued the hospital for exploiting her daughter. Since the experiments were stopped and all learning excersise from professionals were stopped Genie never surpassed the age of a 3yr old.

If your interested in another Feral child case look 'The Forbidden Experiment'. I found it just as interesting as the Genie case.