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Genie's Psychological Theory In Secret Of The Wild Child

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In the movie, Secret of the Wild Child, social workers recover a young girl who has been stripped of a normal life in society. The young thirteen year old child’s name is Genie and when social workers observe her behavior, they notice something rather odd. Genie was kept in a room strapped to a potty chair and given no social interaction. She didn’t go outside and was beaten for making noise. Because of Genie’s childhood, she was cursed with a funny walk, was mute with no vocabulary, and had to learn how to be a child beyond normal time. Based on these observation, psychoanalysts might say that the critical and sensitive period hypothesis and language theory can explain why Genie developed the way she did. Based on psychological research, the critical period is known to be the time in which a particular type of developmental growth, body or behavior, must happen if it is ever to happen. The sensitive period is the time when a certain type of development is most likely, although it may still happen later. Many would say that Genie did not go through this phase because of her inability to talk and interact with others. Children are more likely to develop language during these phases and because Genie was already thirteen …show more content…

He also explains that the critical period is the particular period in life of humans when it is right for learning language and experimenting this language theory is unethical. Genie was stripped from her sociocultural reality and in response she interacted by spitting, sniffing, clawing, and being self-destructive. She had to learn how to turn anger into words, yet she was unable to form full sentences. Scientist and researchers came to a conclusion that because of the absence of this period, Genie may have been brain damaged or mentally retarded from the

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In the fall of 1970, a girl emerged out of the shadows of terrible abuse and seclusion. This girl, under the pseudonym of Genie from the media and researchers, would go on to fascinate people alike. Her story was tragic and evoking, and would transform the view on the perception of language. Russ Rymer, in Genie: A Scientific Tragedy, tells of the unearthed 13 year old who had been kept imprisoned since the age of two by her abusive father, Clark. Clark was a miserable and unfortunate man and was much older than Genie’s mother, Irene.

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In an early years setting their a variety of different children that have certain needs that need to be met in order for them to be healthy, safe, secure and welcomed into the setting. Therefore if a child had a problem which led to them being in need of a wheelchair constantly while in the setting. Then their needs would have to be met in a variety of ways for example someone needing to push the child to get around the nursery correctly, having support to complete tasks, someone holding the doors open to allow the child to join in outdoor activities and finally helping the child to get ready into the correct wear for example if they need a coat on to go outside. Although when doing activities for example outdoor play and learning how to catch and throw the ball over the parachute.

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What evidence from the Genie Wiley case supports both the nurture and the nature points of view regarding language development? (3 points) Genie Wiley’s case helps support both sides of the nurture vs nature debate. The fact that she learned to talk after more than 10 years of confinement helps support the nature side because proves that she has the ability to communicate in her genes.

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Children need to be in a positive environment where mental stimulation is supported; Genie did not have any such experiences. Additionally, the sensitive period for language ends at age 12, making it much more difficult to learn language after this time frame. Genie Wiley was able to learn hundreds of words and even string together some small phrases; however, because she had never heard conversation growing up, she did not have the capacity to process syntax and grammar,limiting her ability to learn how to speak fluently. Although Genie Wiley’s ability to communicate verbally was limited, her cognitive abilities did not appear to be deficient. Despite her horrific past, through the doctors and researchers’ nurturing and encouragement, Genie was able to learn an exponential amount of

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An example of this is how Axana, the Ukrainian girl who was raised by dogs, behaved more like a dog than a human being after living some of her childhood years with such animals. Genie’s story is however the most helpful one in our case. She was raised inside a bedroom, completely isolated from the outside world, knowing nothing about it, including language. Her existence was discovered when she was thirteen. When trying to learn the language, she could memorize only vocabulary, failing to learn grammar and to make proper sense.

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During this stage, children start to interact more with peers in school. Through interacting with other kids, children will not only practice their social ability but gain a sense of initiative through planning things themselves as well, thus to feel confident in their ability and decision-making. It is important for children to explore and plan activities by themselves to achieve the feeling of control, yet Genie was not able to decide or try anything in her early childhood. On the contract, she got beaten by her father whatever she did. Therefore, combining the autism and the lack of confidence she expressed after the rescue, we can assume after the fails of the previous development, Genie was apparently not an initiative child.

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“Secret of the Wild Child” is about the experiences and development of a child that was in solitary confinement for thirteen years. Genie was the name they pinned on the child due to the similarities of being kept in isolation, then suddenly brought out to human society. During the first few months of life, children need to be exposed to other humans who will care and love for them because this creates a set of ideas and attitudes about who they are as independent beings (Brym et al. 2015,96). Genie’s isolation raised the question whether it was too late for her self image to emerge.

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Beyond all of that, Genies’ father forbade the rest of the Wiley family from speaking to her. It was also apparent that she had been beaten for making noise. As a result, Genie had not learned to speak and initially remained silent. Considering case was so rare, Genie provided the perfect opportunity to research the validity of a hypothesis which stated that “young children can only learn certain things at certain times called critical periods”

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Humans learn through social interaction, talking, hearing, seeing and touching, acquiring knowledge society relays heavily on sensory senses. The sociological impact on Genie was one that no human could possibly recover from, treated without dignity and the social acceptance of her parents. In the end it is through socializing that we learn key functions and have a healthy cognitive development, with the absence in social interaction the brain will shut down rendering one impaired have catastrophic results. From this experimental observation one can learn key sociological necessities as well has impact without human interaction. Genie is a wild child by force not through social self-expression.

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Without any interaction, Genie is unable to vocalize and displays inhuman characteristics such as clawing and spitting. No sense of self is conceptualize during her childhood causing developmental consequences. However, when she is cared for at the Children’s Hospital, she is given a chance to socialize and gradually

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In line with this is the Piaget 's Stage Theory with the assumption that the other people were not necessary for the acquisition of new skills and practices. For Genie 's case, this has been reversed (the theory might not be necessarily wrong), with the fact that in her cognitive development started when she was older than 13 years of age. After the transfer of Genie to LA children 's Hospital, pediatricians, psychologists, and linguists treated her. Exposing her outside hospital, everything is a new experience for her, and it had great progresses, as she learned to play, chew, dress herself, and enjoy music. She was enthusiastic, she was learning the words for the things around her, and she engaged with the people around her.

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Thirteen-year-old Genie was found tied to a potty chair on November 4th, 1970, wearing a diaper and unable to talk. Unaware of the outside world and societal norms, Genie was known as the first modern wild child. Genie was locked in her basement for almost her complete life, unable to learn from others and have the opportunity to mentally develop. Through her attempts at rehabilitation by a number of doctors, Genie was able to learn social norms, develop a sense of self and expand her agents of socialization. As Genie learned and explored her new community, she was qualified to adapt to some societal norms.

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Genie was found at age thirteen by a social worker, after Genie’s mother reached out for services. “ The

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A Psychoanalytical Approach to A Doll’s House Sigmund Freud, a well known psychologist, argues that childhood experience influences adult life in the pursuit of happiness. Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House is a prime example of Freud’s theory as the protagonist, Nora, regresses to her past childlike habits of happiness within a voiceless marriage. Nora is limited to mental developmental growth because she is fixated in an adolescent state. In order for Nora to truly find her identity in the end, her illusions of happiness must be shattered.

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She was also beaten by her abusive father if she attempted to make a noise (Curtiss, 1977). Genie underwent extensive training and tutoring to be taught language. While Genie’s vocabulary expanded greatly, and she adopted the ability to form fluid and plausible sentences, she did not manage to master the comprehension of syntax and the grammatical rules of language. Children however naturally grasp the context of syntax without formal teachings of it. This study therefore supports the argument that children acquire language easier during the initial stages of their life.

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