Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Extreme Isolation by Kingsley Davis

     Throughout this week we have been talking about feral children. The term feral children is when children are considered "wild" because they receive limited interactionism with humans. Some of these "wild" children are found in the wild others are locked up in a room where they experience extreme isolation for a long period of time. The most famous case in history is the story of feral child Genie. Genie was locked up in a room with only a crib at a child potty for 13 years. Scientists believe she was routinely beaten as well as harassed. Genie was discovered around the age of 12 or thirteen years old when discovered and was immediately taken to a children's hospital, little did she know that she would be studied for years to come.
     As far as the article Extreme Isolation two young girls around the age of six had been isolated from all interactionism. The question that this article poses is whether or not Anna for example could not make further progress because of genetics (her mother had a low IQ) or because of past circumstances such as being neglected as a child. This idea is known as nature vs nurture. Nature being did you inherit the trait vs nurture where you learned to act that way from the environment in which you grew up in. A second child is discussed in this article. Her name was Isabelle and she was said to have been born one month after Anna. Similarly to Anna, Isabelle was an illegitimate child and was set apart from the rest of her family in an enclosed room with her deaf and mute mother. Isabelle was discovered around the age of 6 and was quickly taken into rehabilitation.
     In the end both girls needed both medical attention and interaction with others. The message that this article is trying to convey is that children need love, care, and affection from an early age and without that they will not develop "normally." Because Isabelle was discovered at a younger age she was able to soon act about her age and perform daily tasks. She not only learned to speak, but she was able to run and sing. Perhaps because Isabelle was discovered at an early age she was able to make up for loss time when she was neglected. On the other hand Genie was isolated for much longer therefore not being able to progress after a certain point.




2 comments: