CHILDREN FERAL

= Wild, undomesticated lived inisolation from human contact and have human language. Definition  Feral ( Latin: Fera= wild  animal )  Feral children Human children who, from a very young age, have remained unaware of social behavior and unexposed to  Cases of feral children are thankfully rare, but are of immense interest from a scientific and educational point of view

  There were also some references, in the beginning of the 14 century, the 19 and also in the 20 century of course, such as the case of Amala and Kamala,who were two "feral girls" from India who were alleged to have been raised by a wolf family.feral gir

Historical background   Myths, legends, and fictional stories have depicted feral children reared by wild animals such as wolves and bears. There so many famous examples such as Romulus and Remus ; Romulus and Remus were twin brothers. They were abandoned by theirwolvesbears. There so parents as babies and put into a basket that was then placed into the River Tiber. The basket ran aground and the twins were discovered by a female wolf.

 Some cases of Feral Children Feral Children can be subdivided into 3 classes  Isolated Children  Confined Children  Children isolated by animals

Defining Characteristics:  Crawling on all Fours Mute Hairy Wild

Real cases   Wild Peter 1725 _1785 Germany  Oxana Malaya 1983(35 years)  Kamala and Amala died on 1921 & 1929 India  Genie 1957 (age 54) United States

years until she was discovered. sign or retardation in her first 3 years of life. inches tall (1.37 m) and weighed only 62 pounds (28 kg). Genie  A study of a young girl who wass deprived of language in her early years  BACKGROUND  Her parents had abused her and kept her locked up for most of her 13  She had been kept in a small room tied to her potty chair.  She was not allowed to speak or make sounds.  She was only given baby food and cereal to eat.  She had been to the doctor one time in her childhood and there was no  When she was admitted to the hospital in November of 1970, she was 54  She could not stand, chew solid food, and couldn't make sounds.

 she had missed her critical period (From two years of more vulnerable than other cognitive faculties. retarted than comprehension. It develops more contribution to the speed and success of late CONCLUSIONS BASED ON TESTS RUN  The inability to learn was due to the fact that age to puberty).  In adverse childhood circumstances, language seems  In cases of deprivation, speech appears to be more slowly after discovery.  Interpersonal contact makes an important language development

Researchers had to wait 11 months to run tests linguistic capabilities. understand more than she was able to speak. understand more and more. singular and plural nouns, negative and positive few prepositions, and some modifications. RESULTS OF TESTS ON GENIE   At first, Genie was unwilling to cooperate. therefore making it hard to truly assess Genie's  At first, it was clear Genie could  Slowly, over 2 years, she began to  She finally picked up the difference between sentence distinctions, possessive constructions, a

Nature  vs Nurture  The study of feral children has focused on some of the central philosophical and scientific controversies about human nature. Researchers have engaged in debates about nature vs. nurture, which human activities require social instruction, whether there is a critical period for language acquisition, and to what extent education can compensate for delayed development and limited intelligence.

 The Critical Period Hypothesis Lenneberg 1967  Before age 2 language acquisition is not possibe because the human brain is not sufficiently mature.  After puberty the natural language acquisition is not obtainable because the brain is physiologically mature.  So, In order to acquire language there are two necessary requirements.  A human brain  Sufficient exposure to language during this critical period between the age of two and puberty.

The Interest in Feral Children  We can learn things that we couldn’t ethically learn from experiments  Origins of language and other human attributes  How close is human nature to animal nature?  What aspects of human nature are genetic, and what aspects are learned?  Could we learn how to speak to animals, or could we teach animals to speak to humans?

Conclusion   stories of feral children have intrigued many people - especially scientists and educators - for possible clues as to the effect of socialization on language and communication skills, learned aspects of human behavior and development and the true nature of humans. Studies of feral children have led to new methods for teaching children with learning disabilities, and indirectly to the development of Braille and sign language