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

It sounds to me that, at least in the early cases, the children were already mentally retarded and that they already could not communicate or they would have been returned to their families. I have worked with the mentally retarded, some so abused as to become mentally retarded. The "symptoms" sound very similar. I worked with one wonderful little boy who, though he looked completely normal, could not communicate at all, or rather he spoke his own language. When he became frustrated, he rocked back and forth. Wouldn't you? At any rate, if he had run off, which was a constant worry, and could not be found, he would appear very much like a "feral child." On the other hand, being neglected or locked in a cage could do worlds of harm as well.

Pixie,

I agree completely with you. I originally wrote this piece as an exploration between mankind and our primitive origins, but in the process I have learned that the cases of Feral Children cannot be used to make such connections. Many of these children were badly traumatised, and whether they were traumatised before they were found, or as a result of their experiences in the wild, is moot I think. The point is that they were deprived of any form of love or caring during a crucial phase of their life. Their experiences as a result are probably far more similar to many present day "non-feral" children who have been badly traumatised through neglect and hardship, than to any primitive ancestors we might have once had.

This, combined with a complete lack of knowledge regarding the treatment and care of mentally disabled people right up to the early 20th century produced the cases I outlined here.

you both seem to be missing the point about feral children though.

something that is almost universal to all the cases I have heard of is that they have not been exposed to language before the process of myalinisation occurs in the brain.

this occurs at about the age of four, and after this process, the structure of the brain is fairly well set in stone.

This means that even with the techniques of a few years ago, there is little chance of teaching them language.

If you compare this with primate studies, where the primates are raised like children, you find that to a certain extent they can learn sign language.

the problem of abuse and mistreatement, while serious are generally secondary. There have been plenty of cases of teenagers (typically girls) being locked away by their families and held virtually in solitary confinement with minimal contact except to administer beatings.

in these cases the recovery is slow, with plenty of relapses, but it does happen.

Greetings,

I agree with you that in most cases young children/teens that have been isolated have a good possibility to recover, at least to a certain degree. Depending on from what age the child was isolated, how long the isolation was, in what type of environment and also such things as abuse. Both physical and psychological abuse has a major impact during the isolation and also plays a very important roll in the progress of rehabilitation and future behavior of the child. Take for instance a child that has been isolated from the world from infancy up until the age of four. This child has set the behavioral pattern that will determine how she/he will react/behave during the rest of her/his life. I am a strong believer that it is the first four years, which are the most important years in a child’s life when it comes to setting the behavioral pattern in how it will react, feel and be able to function in society during the rest of her/his life.
Midnight

I too, have read of these feral children cases, over the years. Re-reading the cases now, I am struck more than ever by the profound significance of child cultural environment for its development. Really, this is a quantum jump out of the usual 'nature or nurture' debate. It seems to me that our '(human) cultural inheritance' does not receive sufficient ackowledgemnt in our talking or thinking about what makes us 'human'. It also makes nationality differences (which are often called cultural) seem quite minor. In other words, what makes us 'human' is not merely an opposable thumb or an ability to make tools . . etc ..? I feel this is quite a difficult philosophical problem.

I think that it is how you define the word "feral" and "retarded". They have both different meanings even though they have similar "symptoms", they both hold different meanings and cannot be identified with the same meaning.

I believe that Feral children are not, as you call it, retarded and in fact have just been reared in an entirely different social situation to children raised by their parents. Naturally, if left to fend for themselves, children would turn to the first human (or in these cases, animal) for comfort and protection. I think that nurture is a major player in how we develop as humans and if the social interaction from humans is not there, then children cannot learn to grow up in this way, adopting the behaviour of the animal instead. Obviously, nature has a decent part (ie: looking human etc), but kids learn from their primary carer. I work with Special Needs children myself, who have been brought up by their parents and carers in a 'normal' social situation. None of them, no matter how complex their needs, have shown behaviour identical to the Feral children I have been researching.

Generally, these children are not mentally ill or mentally disabled, but instead have had little to no education in being human.

This is precisely what makes them so interesting to science, because you are not having to discover behaviours hidden under multiple layers of social conditioning, but are instead seeing people with few or none of these layers of training.

however the comparison between these children and the mentally retarded can be usefull.

it can tell us which systems are working like they do in "normal" people, and which are not.

All of the cases that I am aware of are not mentally disabled, but are instead just completely uneducated.

it is an interesting side point to note that deliberate attempts by absolute monarchs in the late middle ages to produce children with these characteristics failed misserably, because they could not stop their carers from interacting with them.

typically they came out similar to the low class people who were assinged to look after them, and spoke language in the same ways.

I am a foster mom and the child I have now I believe is a feral child. I am trying to find anyone who might know the best way to treat this child but am having no luck. Any information would be helpful.

pixie, you work with mentally disabled, and yet you call them mentally retarded? Jesus; you obviously don't know how offensive that word is.

i agree i think that feral children are not metally retarded they are still humans regardless of how they act.

Thank you! Humans are humans, no matter who or what we are.

yep it is just not nice to call any humans mentally retarded even if they act differently to every one else

You said it. As part of the disabled community, I like seeing people stand up for us as a whole. We don't usually get that. Cheers!

thats ok