Feral Children (CLA)

Question 1

Oxana

Answer 1

• Ukrainian woman known for her dog imitating behaviour
• Raised by dogs after being neglected and living in her dogs kennel
• Rescued after five years
• Resorted to growls and barks
• Child psychologist stated she wouldn’t ever be able to read

Question 2

Genie

Answer 2

• Tied up in her bedroom without movement for 13 years. Non-verbal, still in nappies and couldn’t walk, lived in total isolation. Family was ordered never to talk to her.
• Chomsky believed children acquire language, and Lenneberg believed there was a critical period in which children could learn language. Genie was proving the theory wrong, she could learn words, but she couldn’t learn grammar and sentences.
• She never heard any words and was never spoken to, so that part of her brain literally physically changed. The brain shrinks to the point that it dies.

Question 3

Edik

Answer 3

• 1999, 4-year-old boy found with local stray dogs, lived this way for two years
• the boys mother was an alcoholic and disappeared, the sister was care for by the neighbours
• the boy learned how to communicate with dogs, scratched the younger kids and bit them
• his language was slow, at the age of 6 he spoke like a 3-year-old. He’s been identified sooner. Appears to be learning grammar on his own.

Question 4

Jim

Answer 4

• Jim was a hearing boy born to deaf parents
• He was encouraged by their parents to listen to the radio and watch tv, but he never properly learned English.
• This supports Skinner’s theory that children require nurture by adults in order to acquire language the same way ‘normal’ children do.