.gif)
Genie (feral child)
Encyclopedia
Genie is the pseudonym for a feral child
who spent nearly all of the first thirteen years of her life locked inside a bedroom strapped to a potty chair. She was a victim of one of the most severe cases of social isolation
ever documented. Genie was discovered by Los Angeles authorities on November 4, 1970.
Psychologists, linguists and other scientists exhibited great interest in the case because of its perceived ability to reveal insights into the development of language and linguistic critical periods
. Initially cared for in the Children's Hospital Los Angeles
, Genie later became the subject of acrimonious debate over where and with whom she should eventually live, moving between the houses of the researchers who studied her, to foster homes, to her mother's house, and finally to a sheltered home for adults with disabilities in California. Funding and research interest in her abilities eventually ceased and she quickly regressed to her previous state. In 1994, a book was written about her case by Russ Rymer
.
As of 2008 she was a ward of the state and in confinement in a private institution for the mentally undeveloped — the location of the institution and her current name remain undisclosed. Genie's discovery was compared extensively with that of Victor of Aveyron
, subject of the movie, The Wild Child
.
, California
. Genie was their fourth (and second surviving) child, and she had an older brother who also lived in the home.
Genie spent the first 12 years of her life locked in her bedroom. During the day, she was tied to a child's toilet in diaper
s; some nights, when she had not been completely forgotten, she was bound in a sleeping bag
and placed in an enclosed crib
with a cover made of metal screening. Indications are that Genie's father beat her with a large stick if she vocalized, and he barked and growled at her like a dog in order to keep her quiet. He also rarely allowed his wife and son to leave the house or even to speak, and he expressly forbade them to speak to Genie. By the age of 13, Genie was almost entirely mute, commanding a vocabulary of about 20 words and a few short phrases (nearly all negative, such as "stop it" and "no more").
, to seek benefits for the blind
. A social worker met them and guessed that Genie was 6 or 7 years old and possibly autistic. When it was revealed that she was actually 13, the social worker immediately called her supervisor, who then notified the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
. Shortly after Genie was found, her father committed suicide
by gunshot.
Genie had developed a characteristic "bunny walk", in which she held her hands up in front, like claws. Although she was almost entirely silent, she constantly sniffed, spat, and clawed. Many of the items she coveted were objects with which she could play. In spite of her condition, hospital staff hoped they could nurture her to normality. When interest in the case widened, Genie became the focus of an investigation to provide evidence supporting the theory that humans have a critical age threshold for language acquisition
. Within a few months of therapy, she had advanced to one-word answers and had learned to dress herself. Her doctors predicted complete success. Doctors screened François Truffaut
's movie The Wild Child
for ideas. Genie was initially moved out of the hospital to the home of Jean Butler, and later was moved to live with psychologist David Rigler, his wife and children, where she remained for four years.
skills; repeatedly she and her caregivers were approached by strangers who would, without being asked, spontaneously give Genie gifts or possessions in which she exhibited an interest.
Butler's personal journal recorded concern that Genie was taxed too greatly by the Genie team and experiments; however, Butler did not hide the fact that she hoped Genie would help make her famous. According to Curtiss, Butler frequently stated that she was "going to be the next Anne Sullivan
." Her true intentions may never be known because she died in 1988, but many members of the Genie team claimed genuine affection for Genie and an overwhelming desire to rescue her.
Butler did, however, continue the essential practice of observing and documenting Genie's behavior while in her home. One such behavior Butler documented was Genie's practice of hoarding
, a behavior typical of children who have been moved from abusive homes. When Butler applied to be Genie's legal foster parent, she was rejected.
She stayed with the Rigler family for the next four years. During that period she began to learn some language, and the Riglers arranged for her to learn sign language
. She also learned to smile
. If she could not express herself in language, she would try to communicate by drawing pictures.
, which had funded the project, grew concerned about the lack of scientific research data generated, as well as the unprofessional manner in which records were being kept. In 1974, the Institute cut off funding for the research. The following year the Riglers decided to discontinue their foster parenting. Genie had not yet learned full grammatical English and only went so far as phrases like "Applesauce buy store." However, Jones contends that her linguistic skills have been underestimated.
The original research team heard nothing more about Genie until her mother sued them for excessive and outrageous testing and claimed the researchers gave testing priority over Genie's welfare, pushing her beyond the limits of her endurance. According to ABC News, the suit was settled in 1984. However, in a 1993 letter to the New York Times, David Rigler claimed, "The case never came to trial. It was dismissed by the Superior Court of the State of California 'with prejudice,' meaning that because it was without substance it can never again be refiled."
Feral child
A feral child is a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, and has no experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language...
who spent nearly all of the first thirteen years of her life locked inside a bedroom strapped to a potty chair. She was a victim of one of the most severe cases of social isolation
Social isolation
Social isolation refers to a lack of contact with society for members of social species. There may be many causes and individuals in numerous generally social species are isolated at times, it need not be a pathological condition. In human society, in those cases where it is viewed as a pathology,...
ever documented. Genie was discovered by Los Angeles authorities on November 4, 1970.
Psychologists, linguists and other scientists exhibited great interest in the case because of its perceived ability to reveal insights into the development of language and linguistic critical periods
Critical Period Hypothesis
The critical period hypothesis is the subject of a long-standing debate in linguistics and language acquisition over the extent to which the ability to acquire language is biologically linked to age...
. Initially cared for in the Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Children's Hospital Los Angeles, formerly Childrens Hospital Society, is a private, non-profit teaching hospital in Los Angeles. The hospital provides multidisciplinary care to over 93,000 children each year, with physician expertise in over 100 pediatric specialties and subspecialties.The hospital...
, Genie later became the subject of acrimonious debate over where and with whom she should eventually live, moving between the houses of the researchers who studied her, to foster homes, to her mother's house, and finally to a sheltered home for adults with disabilities in California. Funding and research interest in her abilities eventually ceased and she quickly regressed to her previous state. In 1994, a book was written about her case by Russ Rymer
Russ Rymer
Russ Rymer is an author and freelance journalist with articles in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, and others. His first book, Genie, a Scientific Tragedy, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and awarded with the Whiting Writers' Award...
.
As of 2008 she was a ward of the state and in confinement in a private institution for the mentally undeveloped — the location of the institution and her current name remain undisclosed. Genie's discovery was compared extensively with that of Victor of Aveyron
Victor of Aveyron
Victor of Aveyron was a feral child who apparently lived his entire childhood naked and alone in the woods before being found wandering the woods near Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, France, in 1797. He was captured, but soon escaped after being displayed in the town...
, subject of the movie, The Wild Child
The Wild Child
The Wild Child is a French film by director François Truffaut. The film features Jean-Pierre Cargol, François Truffaut, Françoise Seigner and Jean Dasté. The film had a total of 1,458,164 admissions in France...
.
Parents and child abuse
Genie's parents lived in ArcadiaArcadia, California
Arcadia is an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, and located approximately northeast of downtown Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley and at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains....
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Genie was their fourth (and second surviving) child, and she had an older brother who also lived in the home.
Genie spent the first 12 years of her life locked in her bedroom. During the day, she was tied to a child's toilet in diaper
Diaper
A nappy or a diaper is a kind of pant that allows one to defecate or urinate on oneself discreetly. When diapers become soiled, they require changing; this process is often performed by a second person such as a parent or caregiver...
s; some nights, when she had not been completely forgotten, she was bound in a sleeping bag
Sleeping bag
A sleeping bag is a protective "bag" for a person to sleep in, essentially a blanket that can be closed with a zipper or similar means, and functions as a bed in situations where a bed is unavailable . Its primary purpose is to provide warmth and thermal insulation...
and placed in an enclosed crib
Infant bed
An infant bed is a small bed specifically for infants and very young children, generally up to 3 years old....
with a cover made of metal screening. Indications are that Genie's father beat her with a large stick if she vocalized, and he barked and growled at her like a dog in order to keep her quiet. He also rarely allowed his wife and son to leave the house or even to speak, and he expressly forbade them to speak to Genie. By the age of 13, Genie was almost entirely mute, commanding a vocabulary of about 20 words and a few short phrases (nearly all negative, such as "stop it" and "no more").
Rescue
Genie was discovered at the age of 13 when her mother left her husband and took Genie with her. On November 4, 1970, the two entered a welfare office in Temple City, CaliforniaTemple City, California
Temple City is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Temple City is part of a cluster of cities, along with Arcadia, Rosemead, Monterey Park, San Marino, and San Gabriel, in the west San Gabriel Valley with a rapidly growing Asian population. Temple City also has a Cuban and Puerto Rican...
, to seek benefits for the blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
. A social worker met them and guessed that Genie was 6 or 7 years old and possibly autistic. When it was revealed that she was actually 13, the social worker immediately called her supervisor, who then notified the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is a local county law enforcement agency that serves Los Angeles County, California. It is the fourth largest local policing agency in the United States, with the New York City Police Department being the first. The second largest is the Chicago Police...
. Shortly after Genie was found, her father committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by gunshot.
Genie had developed a characteristic "bunny walk", in which she held her hands up in front, like claws. Although she was almost entirely silent, she constantly sniffed, spat, and clawed. Many of the items she coveted were objects with which she could play. In spite of her condition, hospital staff hoped they could nurture her to normality. When interest in the case widened, Genie became the focus of an investigation to provide evidence supporting the theory that humans have a critical age threshold for language acquisition
Language acquisition
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate. This capacity involves the picking up of diverse capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary. This language might be vocal as with...
. Within a few months of therapy, she had advanced to one-word answers and had learned to dress herself. Her doctors predicted complete success. Doctors screened François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
's movie The Wild Child
The Wild Child
The Wild Child is a French film by director François Truffaut. The film features Jean-Pierre Cargol, François Truffaut, Françoise Seigner and Jean Dasté. The film had a total of 1,458,164 admissions in France...
for ideas. Genie was initially moved out of the hospital to the home of Jean Butler, and later was moved to live with psychologist David Rigler, his wife and children, where she remained for four years.
Characteristics and personality
Though initially nearly silent, Genie later learned to vocalize and express herself through signs. While in captivity she was provided with few toys or objects to stimulate her; the majority of her time was spent in a dark room staring at a yellow plastic raincoat. After her rescue, attempts were made to help her speak and socialize. Her demeanor changed considerably, and she became sociable with adults with whom she was familiar. Colorful plastic objects became her favorite objects to collect and play with, and she demonstrated a deep fascination with classical music played on the piano (one of the neighboring children practiced piano regularly, and this was speculated to be the source of her fascination as it was one of very few sensations available to her). Genie developed remarkable nonverbal communicationNonverbal communication
Nonverbal communication is usually understood as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless messages. Messages can be communicated through gestures and touch , by body language or posture, by facial expression and eye contact...
skills; repeatedly she and her caregivers were approached by strangers who would, without being asked, spontaneously give Genie gifts or possessions in which she exhibited an interest.
First foster home
Jean Butler was Genie's teacher at Children's Hospital. Butler became Genie's foster parent by accident or by, as members of the Genie team suspected, a scheme that Butler concocted to allow Genie to stay with her. Butler claimed that she herself had a rash that was likely measles, and thus when Genie had visited her home, Genie may have contracted it. Genie was moved to Butler's home with the initial intent of a temporary quarantine, but the stay became prolonged when Butler petitioned to make it permanent. Butler became very protective of Genie and resisted visits by other members of the Genie team including Susan Curtiss and James Kent.Butler's personal journal recorded concern that Genie was taxed too greatly by the Genie team and experiments; however, Butler did not hide the fact that she hoped Genie would help make her famous. According to Curtiss, Butler frequently stated that she was "going to be the next Anne Sullivan
Anne Sullivan
Johanna "Anne" Mansfield Sullivan Macy , also known as Annie Sullivan, was an American teacher best known as the instructor and companion of Helen Keller.-Early life:Sullivan was born on April 14, 1866 in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts...
." Her true intentions may never be known because she died in 1988, but many members of the Genie team claimed genuine affection for Genie and an overwhelming desire to rescue her.
Butler did, however, continue the essential practice of observing and documenting Genie's behavior while in her home. One such behavior Butler documented was Genie's practice of hoarding
Compulsive hoarding
Compulsive hoarding is the acquisition of possessions in excess of socially normative amounts, even if the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary...
, a behavior typical of children who have been moved from abusive homes. When Butler applied to be Genie's legal foster parent, she was rejected.
Second foster home
Genie returned to the hospital and was handed over to a new foster parent, therapist David Rigler. His wife, Marilyn, became Genie's new teacher. Marilyn found the need to teach Genie unconventional lessons, for example, in anger management. Genie would go into a fit of rage and act out against herself, so Marilyn taught Genie to direct her frustrations outward by jumping, slamming doors, stomping her feet and generally "having a fit." Marilyn noted that Genie had a stronger command of vocabulary than most children acquiring language. During this period Genie was even able to discuss her life before language was a part of it.
- Marilyn Rigler: Where did you stay when you lived at home? Where did you live? Where did you sleep?
- Genie: Potty chair.
- Marilyn Rigler: You slept in the potty chair?
- Genie: Mmm-hmm. Potty chair.
She stayed with the Rigler family for the next four years. During that period she began to learn some language, and the Riglers arranged for her to learn sign language
Sign language
A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's...
. She also learned to smile
Smile
A smile is a facial expression formed by flexing the muscles near both ends of the mouth. The smile can also be found around the eyes . Among humans, it is an expression denoting pleasure, joy, happiness, or amusement, but can also be an involuntary expression of anxiety, in which case it is known...
. If she could not express herself in language, she would try to communicate by drawing pictures.
Loss of funds and interest
Despite Genie's relative success, the National Institute of Mental HealthNational Institute of Mental Health
The National Institute of Mental Health is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health...
, which had funded the project, grew concerned about the lack of scientific research data generated, as well as the unprofessional manner in which records were being kept. In 1974, the Institute cut off funding for the research. The following year the Riglers decided to discontinue their foster parenting. Genie had not yet learned full grammatical English and only went so far as phrases like "Applesauce buy store." However, Jones contends that her linguistic skills have been underestimated.
Later childhood
In 1975, Genie was returned to the custody of her mother, who wished to care for her daughter. After a few months, the mother found that taking care of Genie was too difficult, and Genie was transferred to a succession of six more foster homes. In some of the homes she was physically abused and harassed, and her development regressed severely. She returned to her coping mechanism of silence and gained a new fear of opening her mouth. This new fear developed after she was severely punished for vomiting in one of her foster homes; she did not want to open her mouth, even to speak, for fear of vomiting and facing punishment again.The original research team heard nothing more about Genie until her mother sued them for excessive and outrageous testing and claimed the researchers gave testing priority over Genie's welfare, pushing her beyond the limits of her endurance. According to ABC News, the suit was settled in 1984. However, in a 1993 letter to the New York Times, David Rigler claimed, "The case never came to trial. It was dismissed by the Superior Court of the State of California 'with prejudice,' meaning that because it was without substance it can never again be refiled."
See also
- Victor of AveyronVictor of AveyronVictor of Aveyron was a feral child who apparently lived his entire childhood naked and alone in the woods before being found wandering the woods near Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, France, in 1797. He was captured, but soon escaped after being displayed in the town...
- Mockingbird Don't SingMockingbird Don't SingMockingbird Don't Sing is a 2001 American independent film based on the true story of Genie, a modern-day feral child. The film is told from the point of view of Dr. Susan Curtiss , a professor of linguistics at University of California, Los Angeles. Although the film is based on a true story, all...