WILD AND ISOLATED

CHILDREN AND THE CRITICAL

AGE ISSUE FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING

WILD OR FERAL

CHILDREN

CPHWHO ARE

THEY?

THE RESULT

OTHER CASES

VICTOR : THE WILD BOY OF AVEYRON

CAPTURED IN JANUARY 1800 NEAR THE WOODS OF SERNIN, AVEYRON,

FRANCE

AGED 11 – 12 YEARS OLD

WHEN AND WHOM?

JEAN-MARC-GASPARD ITARD

TRIES TEACHING SPEECH BUT FAILS

- Set up an ambitious program

- Named him as Victor- Started the lesson with

variety of games and activities that was

responded dramatically- Imposed drilling method

- Exposed to speech organs and sounds

- Victor’s responses- Concludes that

communication is language and not mere recognition of

environment context

TRIES READING AND WRITING WITH SUCCESS- Focuses on sharpening

perceptual abilities- Started to expose to

letters of the alphabets- Victor’s progress and

difficulties faced

ANOTHER ATTEMPT ON TEACHING SPEECH- End of fifth year

- Failed and gives up- Arranged a place for

Victor to live in a house with Madam Guerin

- Victor lived for 18 years as a mute

- Died at the age of 38

Discovered in the early 1970’s

at the LA, California Was locked away by

her father for 12 years who had

beaten her frequently

Discovered at the age of 13 in a pitiful state

and no knowledge of

language when her mother

escaped with her

Just started to acquire

language around 20

months of age

Brutally tormented by

her father who eventually committed

suicide on the day of trial for mistreating his

child

GENIE : RAISED IN ISOLATION (A PSEUDONYM)

GIVEN FREEDOM AND CARE

- During first few weeks, she was alert

and curious- Had little

understanding of grammatical

structures- Responded only to

gestures and intonation of words

- Later, changed considerably

- Acquired words for a hundreds of objects

out of curiosity

A PEAK IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

- Progressed a little after eight years of

being studied- Language ability remained below

normal and continued to be ungrammatical- Placed in a home for

retarded adults

ISABELLE :

CONFINEMENT WITH

A MUTE MOTHER

Started gaining

language at six and a half years

after freedom

through her mother

Sustained a brain injury at

two years old

Mason’s opinion on

Isabelle while

attending her at the Children’s Hospital,

Columbus, Ohio

(11/ 1938)

HER PROGRESSION?

FIRST ONE WEEK

First attempt of vocalization

LESS THAN THREE MONTHSProduce sentence

utterances

ONE YEARListens

attentively to and retells a story in

own words

A YEAR AND HALF

Complex structures

20 MONTHS LATER

Produce full sentence

CHELSEA : BEGAN TO LEARN LANGUAGE AT THE AGE 32

Mistaken for being deaf at birth(a pseudonym)

Not given any form of language training/ instructionWHY?

At 32, discovered is only partially hearing- impaired and later, with hearing aids, she was able to hear speech

relatively normal

HER LANGUGE

DEVELOPMENT

Has developed extensive

vocabulary

Syntactic profile

appears to lack any word

order

Yet unable to form

grammatically correct utterances & remain on topic

Now, about 50 years

old and has held a job

that requires

her to read & write

Reported to be

actively engage in

social interaction

and independe

nt

HELEN KELLER : THE RENOWNED DEAF AND BLIND GIRL

Became deaf & blind at the age

of 19 months due to illnessHad

some exposure

on learning language

before illness

At the age of 7,

introduced to ANNE

SULLIVAN MACY

Who was she?

Macy’s efforts to

teach language

via touching

sense succeede

d

Helen learned

via touching speech

articulators and even

learned to speak

Able to produce

somewhat strange speech Why?

Became an acclaimed lecturer

and writer in the

service of handicapped people

Learned to read &

produce Braille and graduated

from Radcliff

OXANA: RAISED BY DOGS

Discovered in 1991 living in a kennel after abandoned by alcoholics parents during the age of 3

Given shelter by a dog family for the next 5 years who eventually behaved like a ‘dog’ when discovered

Last reported 2 years back, she was living in a home for the mentally ill where her speech has improved though had difficulties in relating to people

Her doctor, Vladimir Nagorny, stated that her development seem to come to a limit and though they have been trying to find her a job, she will never be considered as a normal person

EDIK : RAISED BY DOGS

James Law studied Edik and remains optimistic abut his language progress

Language skills and grammar slowly

improved where at the age of 6,

speech production was equivalent to a

3 years old

Was living in a foster home after two years of his

discovery

Survived by stray dogs since 2 years

old after abandoned by an alcoholic mother

Discovered in 1999 when 4

years old by social workers in a

deserted apartment

A CRITICAL AGE FOR FIRST –

LANGUAGE LEARNING

WHY DID ONLY ISABELLE AND HELEN FULLY

LEARN LANGUAGE?

PERIOD OF

EXPOSURE

EXPOSURE TO

LANGUAGE

EXTENT OF ANY

PHYSICAL, PSYCHOLO

GICAL & SOCIAL TRAUMA PRIOR

EXPOSURE

AGE OF EXPOSURE

FACTORS GOVERNIN

G LANGUAGE LEARNING

WHY DID GENIE NOT PROGRESS MORE THAN SHE DID?

Factors contributing to her

faulty in speech production in terms

of pronunciation

Jones argues that

inconsistencies in

the presentation of

the data on Genie

raises a doubt of her progress in

acquiring English syntax

Curtiss concludes that Genie had a clear semantic

ability but could not learn syntax

WHY?

CHELSEA : INSUFFICIENT

EVIDENCE

Chelsea’s abilities in this scope was not

sufficiently assessed

Crucial data for critical age lie in syntactic

understanding and not production

Curtiss debated that Chelsea’s case proves that beyond

a critical period, other aspects of language can be learned but not

syntax(not substantiated)

THE ACHIEVEMENTS

ISABELLE HELEN

Was supported by family throughout her language

deprivation period

Had a loving family

Was exposed to language during the first 19 months old

Gestures shared between her mom may have helped to

understand the relationship between object & symbol crucial

for language learning

Gained a benefit from mother’s affection and social support

Performed well despite received no language exposure until the

age of six and a half

IS THERE A CRITICAL AGE FOR

FIRST LANGUAGE LEARNING ?

Isabelle & Helen started

to learn language at an

early age following a

relatively short period of

deprivation

Clearly, the idea

experimental situation to

study this has not yet

presented itself

Victor, Genie, Chelsea did not

learn much language

Certainly, critical age

could not be below six or

seven

Lenneberg suggested this may be due to

biological maturation of

brain