Katie Cesarz '00

    For most individuals the development of language comes naturally as a they grow from an infant to childhood. Noam Chomsky believes that language, like other bodily organs, are genetically pre-programmed by a language acquisition device in the brain. The deep structure (logical syntax) of language is not learned, although the surface structure, such as phonetic sounds are learned. A few children do not master the basic foundation of language, perhaps due to living out in the wild with animals or possibly because of child abuse or neglect. One of the most recent examples of a child not mastering the rudiments of language was found in November 1970, and researchers named her Genie or more commonly known as the "wild child."

      Genie has held a very sad life ever since the days of infancy. Genie was a prisoner in her own home, much like her mother, trapped in by her father, Clark, who abused them both for years. Genie’s mother, Irene, was 90% blind due to cataracts and a detached retina, and finally escaped from Genie’s abusive father in Novemeber 1970. Genie’s mother was looking for help for herself, and ended up stumbling into the general social services office. Upon their entering the building a woman was struck by the emaciated appearance of the child. The workers at first thought Genie had autism and was around 6 years old, however, later to their amazement found that she was 13 1/2 years old. When first examined she weighed only 59 pounds, could not swallow, had incontinence, could not chew solid food, could not cry, and could not focus her eyes beyond 12 feet. One of the biggest characteristics of Genie was that she could not speak as a normal 13 1/2 year old. Genie could only say a few words (less than 20) such as: red, blue, green, brown, mother, go, walk, door, jewelry box, bunny, stop it, and no more.

      A common question is how and why would this happen? The answer lies in the background of Genie’s parents. Both parents had unstable family histories. Irene became nearly blind at a young age, when helping her own mother wash clothes on an old fashioned wringer, which broke and hit Irene in the head. Clark, her father, grew up in foster homes. He never really saw his mother that often, however he strangely was attached to her. Clark went into a state of deep depression when his mother died after being hit from a car. He never got over her death, partly due to the inadequacy of the justice system for only giving a probationary sentence to the driver of the car that killed his mother. Genie was the fourth child of her parents, born a year before the death of his mother. The first child died due to neglect, the second died due to Rh blood poisoning soon after it was born, and the third was a boy who survived after infancy and was taken care of by his grandparents. When Genie was very young she was examined by a doctor who said she was a little slow, possibly mildly retarded. Her father took this opinion and exaggerated it believing that she was profoundly retarded. He therefore, considered himself her guardian angel and became overly protective of her. He wanted to protect her from individuals who would take advantage of her, because he considered her extremely vulnerable. Her father wanted to protect her from the evil world, that killed his mother, and he thought he was the best individual to recognize and protect her from this evil.

      Her father had a great intolerance for noise so when she was born she was stuck in a room in the back of the house so he wouldn’t have to hear her. The room was not a stimulating environment for a young child to grow up in all alone. It consisted of two windows that were mainly covered up, with the exception of a little opening where Genie could look at the sky. Her father strapped her down to a potty seat all day long, and at night she was placed in an outfit much like a straightjacket. Every day and night she was strapped down to either a chair or bed, without the ability to freely walk around. Her toys consisted of empty cottage-cheese containers, empty thread spools, and copies of a TV log. The only interaction with humans is when she was fed very quickly by her parents. They never spoke to her. The only words that Genie ever really heard were muffled from the exterior of her room. Genie was a prisoner of this room for the first 13 1/2 years of her life. Genie’s diet consisted of mainly baby foods, cereals, and soft-boiled eggs. She was often hungry, not given any attention, and was beaten when she would cry or make any vocalizations. Her father did not expect her to live past 12 years. However, Genie proved him wrong, and when her mother finally had enough to courage to leave her husband, she took Genie with her.

      Genie was taken away from her parents and lived at Children’s Hospital. Her parents, charged with abuse and negligence, went to court. Her father shortly committed suicide, and her mother ended up not guilty. At Children’s Hospital Genie was placed in the hands of doctors and psychologists to help her progress. After a few months of getting Genie situated, researchers and doctors were wondering what type of lead to take with her. There were several different paths they could take with her. The difficult part was deciding which path to take because they obviously could not do all. The researchers discussed a variety of paths to take such as a cognitive development approach, linguistics, or a socioeconomic approach where they could see if Genie may possibly bond with a maternal figure. It was a difficult decision. From the very moment Genie entered the hospital, there was a division between the doctors (hospital) with teacher, school, and psychology.

      Genie began to improve almost right away when she entered the hospital. Within three days she was helping herself get dressed. Eventually she began to develop a sense of self. Genie originally would take her anger out on herself. However, one day she became angry with another girl at the hospital, and instead of Genie using a self-inflicting approach, she took the anger out on the other girl. Genie was angry at the other girl, because she was wearing a hospital dress that Genie had worn previously. This showed that Genie had started to develop a sense of self. Genie also began to show a sense of possession by accumulating various objects such as paper cups or books. Genie would spend daily rituals with James Kent, and after about a month of being together she finally showed attachment to him. Another important part of Genie’s recovery was learning new words. She was very curious and would lead her caretakers around pointing to a variety of objects wanting to know the words for each item. Researchers noted that Genie could understand much better than actually speak. Her vocabulary had increased, however she could not speak a lot of the new words that she was learning.

      Around this time Genie was also given intelligence tests to see how well she was progressing. The tests indicated that Genie was making an extraordinary progress. However, researchers noted that her development was scattered. That is, in some areas she would make a year’s worth of progress within a few months, scoring sometimes around 9 years of age, while other areas would remain at a score of a toddler. At 6 months she was practically a different child from when she first entered the hospital. She did not shy away from physical contact, her curiosity for her vocabulary had increased greatly, she became more verbal, and had gained much more confidence.

     At 6 months into her recovery it also proved a time to question Genie’s future, and what the best approach would be to take that would benefit her development and happiness. Finally, a decision was made on what path to focus on for Genie’s future, which ended up being language acquisition. The researchers main emphasis was not exactly teaching her language, but focusing on how Genie learned language. Genie was discovered at a perfect time, because a few years earlier Eric Lenneberg published a book titled, Biological Foundations of Language. In this book he hypothesized that there is a critical period for language development. That is, there is basically a "set deadline" for learning (Rymer, 84). In the summer of 1971 Genie would begin to take a number of psychological and neurological tests.

      The sad part of this story is that a number of researchers became insensitive about Genie’s case. Each researcher tried to spend time with her, hoping that they would be the one to go down in history with her. The researchers became so overly involved in the case that after awhile, they began to lose sight of the real purpose—her happiness and well-being. She switched foster parents, and the longest range in a single environment was four years with the Riglers. At their home Genie’s speech therapy continued, and she also was taught sign language. One part of language which Genie had a difficult time with was asking a question. She could understand questions, however when she had to ask a question her words became all jumbled.

      In the late 1970;s when researchers looked at the psychological tests, they found that Genie had moved up an age in mental development for every year that she was out of her original home. There was also some evidence that Genie may not have been mentally retarded. There support lies in the evidence that a mentally retarded child does not advance a mental age for every exact year. Researchers believed that she was bright, just very troubled. When she lived with the Riglers her personality emerged. She enjoyed participating in activities such as sewing, or drawing, and was very humorous. Genie used her drawings to help translate her ideas to others, when she could not find the correct words or was unable to express her thoughts. Another momentous event for Genie was around Christmas of 1971, when she began relaying past events that occurred in her life. Genie told the Riglers of her experience with her father such as: "Father hit Genie big stick" and "Father take piece wood hit. Cry" (Rymer, 129). This was important because Genie was now opening up and telling others her feeling and past experiences. This information was important for the doctors and researchers to know, so that they could have more of a direction in order to help her. While Genie stayed with the Riglers, she also had the opportunity to visit her mother Irene so that they could interact with each other.

      Over the four years Genie had turned 18 years old, and made many improvements. She did not have as many self-destructive tantrums, she could care for herself( prepare some meals and proper hygiene), and she formed attachments to her foster parents and her biological mother. For a little while Genie lived with her biological mother, but after awhile her mother had a difficult time handling her. On November 7 Genie moved into a home for the developmentally disabled. Genie had a difficult time accepting the absence of her biological mother. After all, Genie did not view her mother as the abuser from the past, instead she became very attached to her.

      Genie had a most bizarre and unfortunate life starting at the very moment she was born. In the beginning she was constrained and not given any attention. When she was discovered by the world, she was bombarded with attention from many researchers. From the multitude of research done on her, one bit of information that held true to Lenneberg’s theory is the inability to produce speech after puberty even when exposed to it. However, in the end the researchers became insensitive and overlooked Genie’s own well-being for scientific research.

Bibliography

Rymer, Russ. Genie: An Abused Child’s Flight From Silence. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993.

Barrett, K. Genie: Escape from a Silent Childhood. The Lancet, August, 1993.

Bergman, Ira M. Genie: An Abused Child’s Flight From Silence. The Journal of the American Medical Association, January, 1994.