Feral Children - Making Up for Lost Time - Term Paper Example

 Feral children, as they are called, have lived isolated from human contact from a very young age. They have had no, or at best limited opportunity for human care or contact. Some have been reported confined by people (usually their parents) in these isolated situations for years, often a result of the parent’s inability or unwillingness to deal with a child’s intellectual or physical disability. As might be expected, many have experienced severe abuse at the hands of their “caretakers.” If capable, they have sometimes run away from their abusive captors, living on their own. Centuries ago, the first feral children were usually victims of war, running away from their potential captors, hiding in forests for years. Some have even been reported to have been “raised” by animals in the wild. The dire developmental affects caused by lack of early nurturing on the brain, social skills and memory can only be imagined and are the topic of this paper. Feral Children: Case Studies in History Ancient mythology has many stories of children nurtured by animals, but the first “true” account of a feral child was recorded by the undoubtedly dependable Roman historian Procopius. A baby boy abandoned by his mother during the chaos of the Gothic wars in about AD 250 was found and suckled by a she-goat. When the survivors returned to their homes, they found the boy living with his adopted mother and named him Aegisthus. Procopius states he saw the child himself (Sieveking para. 2). In eighteenth and nineteenth century European reports concerning “wild children” were beginning to filter in. Academics, naturally skeptical and seeking empirical evidence, judged the phenomenon far off and probably a product of superstition on the part of isolated social groups. Their contention: witnesses were few and mostly peasants (unreliable). The children themselves, many by now adults, had never learned language sufficient to recount their early lives. As a result, testimony was generally dismissed and studies conducted on such individuals few, far between and cursory. For many years, despite several intriguing cases from early on in history, the attitude of science persisted that precluded much serious study of feral children, and the children were viewed as mostly curiosities. One would think that cases such as that of Jean de Liège in 1644 would have set the stage for a more serious approach. A five-year-old during the religious wars, Jean took to the woods with fellow villagers to avoid the invading army. Afterwards the villagers returned but Jean did not, hiding in the woods for sixteen years. As eyewitnesses testified, his senses had sharpened; he could scent “wholesome fruits or roots” at a great distance” (Sievekind, para. 9). When finally captured at twenty-one he could not speak, but back in human society while regaining the latter ability to a very limited degree, “lost his acute sense of smell” (Sievekind para. 9). Despite several cases in this period, inattention to the developmental aspects of the feral child for the most languished well into the twentieth century. In 1830 the Swedish naturalist K.A. Rudolphi proclaimed that all the feral children were either fictional or congenital idiots, and this became the orthodox view carried forward and reinforced by Claude Levi Strauss [as late as] 1949 that “most of these children [had originally] suffered from some congenital defect, and their abandonment should therefore be treated as the consequence of the abnormality which almost all display and not, as often happens, as its cause” ((Sieveking para. 6). In essence their argument was that the developmental behaviors of children who had lived the feral life were probably behaviors from infancy and childhood that had little to do with having lived as wild individuals. Fortunately today we have realized the importance of studying the distinctions between humankind and animal life for the purpose of understanding both. What we have learned is that among those distinctions are the ability to use language...a sense of consciousness about ourselves and the ability to transmit culture—all functions of the brain and memory. In these studies, “As human beings have come to invest in the study of animal life, “what maybe thought to be unique... about human beings is also characteristic of other animals” (Candland 3). Fortunately, despite the cavalier attitude toward the study of feral children in the past, some were interested, if only for the sensational scientific publicity it would bring. One case study recounts the 1724 story of Peter, a feral street child who had learned to deal with and adapt to his environment as an animal might. Put in a hospital for observation, he tried to escape in every way possible. Seemingly annoyed, his keepers complained that despite all their efforts to teach him language “he has...hardly learned enough to ask in English for the most necessary things...his pronunciation is more like babbling...he does not know how to answer any question, and his memory is not as good as an animal’s instinct” (Candland 11). The study indicates more observation than explanation; more curiosity than science. As time went on Peter did develop certain social skills and tastes: he drank brandy, ate smaller portions of food, enjoyed music but had no interest in money or sex, proof to his captors that he was not a natural idiot but simply had not the brain functions to learn certain human behaviors, such as speech. Similar results were received in the case of a young Polish child in 1661 who had come to the attention of J.P.Van den Brande de Cleverskerk. De Cleverskerk recounts that though he eventually was taught, with great difficulty, to walk upright “there was less hope of ever making him learn the Polish language...” (Newton 22-23). He never for his life acquired many social skills and preferred, when given the opportunity, the company of bears in the forest. Modern Feral Children While many cases throughout history probably occurred [although we do not know for certain] through accident or misadventure, unfortunately today in most cases, at least in civilized countries, most feral children are found kept in forced confinement by parents or adults guilty of abuse and neglect. One particularly interesting and well documented case is the story of Genie, a thirteen-year old girl who in 1970 was discovered in California. Isolated in a small room, she had not been spoken to by her parents nor had she had any physical contact with any humans since infancy. As with others before her, she could not stand erect nor could she speak.   “The discovery of Genie aroused intense curiosity among psycholo­gists, linguists, neurologists, and others who study brain develop­ment. They were eager to know what Genie’s mental level was at the time she was found and whether she would be capable of developing her faculties” (Pine para. 3). Focusing on language, studies on Genie sought to answer developmental questions on whether or not there exists a “critical period in a child’s development” (Pine para 4) when if language is not learned it may be hindered or can never be learned thereafter. Studies by researcher Susan Curtis, seeking “to develop a controversial hypothesis about how language learning affects the two hemispheres of the brain...[have] stirred...debate about the relationship between language and other mental abilities” (Pine para 4). At thirteen, she was administered the Vineland Social Maturity Scale and the Preschool Attainment Record and shockingly found to have a score of an average one-year-old. Within a year, she developed some language skills, but not much. While she did not speak in a normal way, in fully developed sentences, she was progressing a bit at least, seemingly contradicting a theory by Harvard psychologist Eric Lenneberg that “the brain of a child before the age of two is not sufficiently mature for the acquisition of language, while after puberty, when the brain’s organization is complete, it has lost its flexibility and can no longer acquire a first language” (Pine para. 17). Genie’s “progress” seems to support the assertion by linguist Noam Chomsky, that “...human beings are born with a unique competence for language, built into their brains” while challenging his notion that “innate mechanisms that underlie this competence must be activated by exposure to language at the proper time, which Chomsky speculates must occur before puberty” (Pine para. 22). Yet because Genie’s language only seemed to progress in a limited way researchers started to consider suspicions that feature detectors in the brain responsible for recognizing consonant sounds must be triggered by the environment or will atrophy, preventing normal speech later on. This seemed the case with Genie. Curtis tended to go along with the theory based on her observations of Genie’s reliance on use of the right hemisphere of her brain. “...the cortical tissue normally committed for language and related abilities may functionally atro­phy” (Pine quotes Curtis, para. 29). Curtis further extrapolated that there were critical developmental periods for left hemisphere that if left undeveloped switch jobs to the right hemisphere, in Genie’s case, with limited function. Regarding the acquisition of social skills in feral children the prognosis is dire and apparently related more to nurture than brain function. Feral children in general [though studies are limited] seem to lack the basic social skills they might have learned through their parents or through enculturation. Such social skills as conversation, using a napkin or even a toilet may be out of the question. (Palande, Feral Children Psychology). “It is almost impossible to convert a feral child into a relatively normal citizen, a member of society in which we live...frustration can set in and they often spend the rest of their lives being passed from one caregiver to another” (Palande, Feral Children Psychology para. 2). In short, children kept in confinement in cellars, dog kennels, pigsties and even hen houses, deprived of a normal life, unable to experience normal influences during their formative years, are bound to experience a profound effect on their social development. Although most of the literature on feral children concentrates on language development as a basis for other issues, there are many other aspects of cognitive development that are affected by this kind of abuse and neglect. When we look at the evidence from feral children on their ability to learn language and socialize, it is hard to argue that the lack of nurture does not have profound effect on brain development. Dr Bruce D Perry of the Child Trauma Academy presents evidence that the impact of the absence of normal human interaction and social stimulation suffered by feral, isolated and confined children is so damaging that brain development, both of behavioral and cognitive capacities, are forever affected. “...neural systems do not develop without necessary experiences. The neural systems which allow us to create relationships...are the product of the interactive, dynamic processes taking place during the history of each individual. [They] organize and change in response to experience throughout the life-cycle...social, emotional, cognitive and physical experiences will shape neural systems in ways that influence functioning for a lifetime” (Perry 2). The brain and its hundred billion neurons and resulting synapses, if unable to connect, die. Perry cautions: “Healthy development of the neural systems which allow optimal social and emotional functioning depends upon attentive, nurturing care giving in infancy and opportunities to form and maintain a diversity of relationships with other children and adults throughout childhood” (11). The unavoidable conclusion of these neurodevelopmental principles is that the organizing, sensitive brain of an infant or young child is more malleable to experience than a mature brain. While experience may alter the behavior of an adult, experience literally provides the organizing framework for an infant and child. “...extreme multi-sensory neglect in childhood [experienced by the feral child] and... The sensory deprivation [that follows] results in obvious alterations in neurobiology and function” (Perry 6) affecting not only the child but society as well. To sum up statistically the impact of abuse, feral or otherwise, on the brains of individuals, Dr. Martin Teicher in a 1993 study found that of one-hundred and fifteen abused subjects tested, brain wave abnormalities were found in fifty-four percent of patients with an abuse history, but in only twenty-seven percent of non-abused patients. Seventy-two percent of the patients in the sample with a history of both physical and sexual abuse had these neurological abnormalities. The conclusion: the greater the severity of the abuse, the greater the impact on brain function. (Kendall para. 7-8) Victor’s Story and Memory Even before the advent of sophisticated psychiatric and neurological tests and tools it was evident from observation that feral children did not exhibit the same ability for memory than children who were normal. In 1800 the Wild Boy of Aveyron became a celebrated test of Rousseau's belief in mankind's innate nobility and the many other claims made about the innate qualities of human beings. The truth of his condition was never clear but that he had lived in the woods from a young age, surviving on what he could, like an animal. As with other feral children, Victor, as he was named, did not adjust to civilized life and ran off every chance he got. For all intents, Victor was and behaved like an animal. The details of Victor’s life in captivity are a stunning read for anyone interested. Lucien Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, hearing of the boy, sent for him in Paris. “Victor seemed the perfect test of what qualities would be inherent in human nature.Would he be as Hobbes had argued a nasty, brutish animal that needed to be tamed by society... or as Rousseau ...would expect...a generous, open-hearted sort as yet untainted by the fruit of knowledge” (Crone para. 7). An interested physician taught him some language, although it was slow and difficult going, and he became trained in some social skills. However in the end Victor remained the wild boy and was turned over to the care of a housekeeper. Most frustrating was his apparent lack of memory, or lack of it as far as anyone could ascertain. “Victor seemed to lack either a normal human sense of identity or memory for past experiences. In the notes...Victor is painted as a blank creature, locked into the present with no thoughts apart from those of simple recognition and association” (Crone 22). If Victor did have a memory [of his life before the wild] he did not appear to remember it. But then, without language, all anyone had to go by would be his reactions to things, which seemed purely animalistic. Any attempt to force human behaviors were just that, forced. His memories, more instincts, were that of the wild. Something in his brain had malfunctioned, or he was left to fend for himself at such a young age his brain had not yet absorbed previous memory. “There is strong evidence to suggest that a child’s memory improves with age” (Campbell para. 1). Ask someone if they have memories of when they were two, and they will generally say no. If a young child is placed in complete isolation at an early age; or if the child becomes a true wild feral child living a primitive life, it doesn’t seem logical that they will remember much about their former life, and probably virtually nothing at all about the life they lived before. That combined in the feral child with lack of sufficient language must suggest, even to the layman, that it is difficult to assess memory in feral children because they can not accurately recount memories even if they have them somewhere buried in the deep recesses of their minds. Children can only hold a few bits of information in their short term memories at a time, as they get older this improves with age, as does their ability to hold more complex and abstract bits of information. In many instances you would be asking a child, say in the instance of Genie, to recall memories of a childhood many years removed. “There is evidence that children's development of memory is linked to the vocabulary spurt children experience at a young age” (Campbell para. 2). If a child, as most do, begins his or her feral existence at a young age then this explains both the failure to successfully develop language and memory, since they are interrelated. Conclusion Perhaps the best and only conclusion one can come to regarding feral children is that because of their unhuman experiences, it is difficult to know exactly what the realities are concerning the psychology of the state after capture, or release. The experience being so personal and so foreign to anyone studying them, the conclusions found may often be in error of misinterpreted. The words of Sieveking probably come closest to the reality. “Hardly any of them learnt to laugh or smile and their libidos seemed stunted. Kaspar confused dreams with reality and spoke of himself in the third person. Neither Victor nor Kaspar could recognize their reflections in a mirror; the Turkish bear-girl would sit for hours in her room gazing at herself in a mirror. Auger observed the gazelle-boy looking at his reflection in a pool of water as if it were a stranger” (Sieveking, final para.) What we have in the feral child is an unknown quantity, at best a guess. Experts—psychologists, sociologist, members of the medical community can only observe and place their own best human criteria to work. Neurologists, perhaps, come closest to any kind of firm reality in their studies of the brain, but even those can only predict a chemical reaction hardly helpful when it comes to repatriating these unfortunately individuals who have been, as it appears, separated forever from their original humanity.     Works Cited Campbell, Hollie. “Does Children’s Memory Improve with Age: If So Why?” Helium.com, 2002-2010. Retrieved April 11, 2010 from: Candland, Douglas Keith. Feral Children and Clever Animals. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Crone, John. “Wolf Children and the Bifold Mind.” Chapter from: Wolf Children, 1993. Retrieved April 10, 2010 from: https://notes.utk.edu/bio/greenberg.nsf/e59872274575534a85256d2b003a7da9/7c 729af3cf5506e885256e5f004fb981?OpenDocument Kendall, Josh. “How Child Abuse and Neglect Damage the Brain.” Reprinted from the Boston Globe, posted (Sept. 24, 2002). Retrieved April 11, 2010 from: http://www.snapnetwork.org/psych_effects/how_abuse_andneglect.htm. Newton, Michael. Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children. London: Faber and Faber, 2002. Palande, Leena. Feral Children Psychology. Buzzle.com (Mar. 31, 2010). Retrieved April 11, 2010 from: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/feral-children.html Perry, Bruce. D. Childhood Experience and the Expression of Genetic Potential: What Childhood Neglect Tells Us About Nature and Nurture. FeralChidren.com. (No date). Retrieved April 11, 2010 from: http://www.feralchildren.com/en/pager.php?df=perry2002 Pines, Maya. “The Civilizing of Genie” from Teaching English through the Disciplines: Psychology, Loretta F. Kasper, Ed., Whittier, 1997. Retrieved April 20 from: http://kccesl.tripod.com/genie.html Sieveking, Paul.“Wild Things: Feral Children.”Aug. 2002. Retrieved April 22, 2010 from: http://www.erbzine.com/mag21/2107.html Read More