Secret Of The Wild Child Analysis

The documentary called Secret of the Wild Child presents a compelling story of a young girl named Genie, who was kept in isolation for 13 years by her father due to the fact that he assumed she was mentally retarded. This feral child presents one of the most extreme cases of neglect discovered in the United States. Genie faced abuse by her father, minimal human contact, development issues, and malnourishment until found by authorities in 1970. After being taken to Children's Hospital Los Angeles, her treatment and research began with great curiosity from both the media and scholars alike. Throughout the duration of Genie's education, she faced a number of problems in both aspects of language and social skills. To begin with, Genie was raised in an impoverished environment for the majority of her life. At a psychological standpoint, this may have led to neurological effects. Studies show that the environment one is raised in has a significant effect on brain development, which can be the cause of Genie's initial language acquisition issues (Myers, 2010, p.

In Genie's case, she was never given the chance to communicate with others. At a social-cultural standpoint, Genie lacked peer and parental influences to help shape her knowledge of how to behave in society. Usually in child-rearing practices, children get a sense of the culture they are being brought up in. Through observation and verbal education, they are able to obtain a sense of how to correctly conduct themselves in public. Genie lacked the ability to interact with others up until she was 13, which greatly hindered her social skills. Viewers see the effects of this fact in the documentary, when Genie invades the personal space of strangers as they speak to her, and is incapable of normally greeting another