Feral Child Case Study

The following essay examines the up close dynamics of Brianna Marie De Moss. This entails the aspects of her social, cognitive, and mental development related to theories of Erik Erikson, Urie Bronfenbrenner, and Jean Piaget. This timeline is set up on the basis of Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development according to Brianna’s accomplishments in age. In addition, outside scholarly articles are included that pertain to influences on her growth from prenatal care through the present. Brianna’s mother, Angie De Moss also adds to the conversation to give the reader insight towards her witness of her daughter’s development.

Most of the information, beliefs, and life skills that one gains in life is gathered during the early years of life. Also during this time, one develops and grows to become the person they will be. Ellen’s childhood forced her be become independent, as well as view herself and others differently as she matured. Ellen’s independence was a result of her lack of a parent figure in her early years of life. She was given the tasks of learning on her own and doing things considered more mature, such as taking care of herself and paying bills, something that one normally is not tasked with until they have grown up.

In line with this is the Piaget 's Stage Theory with the assumption that the other people were not necessary for the acquisition of new skills and practices. For Genie 's case, this has been reversed (the theory might not be necessarily wrong), with the fact that in her cognitive development started when she was older than 13 years of age. After the transfer of Genie to LA children 's Hospital, pediatricians, psychologists, and linguists treated her. Exposing her outside hospital, everything is a new experience for her, and it had great progresses, as she learned to play, chew, dress herself, and enjoy music. She was enthusiastic, she was learning the words for the things around her, and she engaged with the people around her.

Humans learn through social interaction, talking, hearing, seeing and touching, acquiring knowledge society relays heavily on sensory senses. The sociological impact on Genie was one that no human could possibly recover from, treated without dignity and the social acceptance of her parents. In the end it is through socializing that we learn key functions and have a healthy cognitive development, with the absence in social interaction the brain will shut down rendering one impaired have catastrophic results. From this experimental observation one can learn key sociological necessities as well has impact without human interaction. Genie is a wild child by force not through social self-expression.

While isolated, Genie had no sense of self, had no ideas of social norms and her only agents of socialization were her parents. While under the care of the hospital and others, she was able to learn and express herself in ways that she was never allowed to before. Finally, able to speak, Genie became able to pronounce simple words. After years of learning, Genie has never been able to fully communicate and has never grasped using questions and sentences. Genie’s influences and insights are accurately described by the sociological concepts

Psychology | 3.4 Genie Researchers can 't ethically create situations in which human babies are deprived of basic needs and attachments to learn about motor, physical, language, and social development. However, when circumstances create those terrible situations in the world, much can be learned by studying those involved. Using what you learned in this lesson and the videos on Genie Wiley, answer the questions below using complete sentences.

In this documentary, the viewers see a child that had been severely battered and abused by her father Clark Wiley, as well as being neglected by her partially blind mother Dorothy Irene Wiley struggle to find a place in the world after she is found and rescued from her abusive home. During those several years of torment Genie was deprived of educational and physical interactions which seemed to be evident at the time of her rescue seeing as she could only utter twenty words that were instilled in her when her father lacked sympathy and had outrageous burst of anger, as well as in the way she walked with her head hobbled over and her arms close to her body at all times. At the time, young Genie was transferred to a children's hospital in Los Angeles where a study took place about the Developmental Consequences of Extreme Isolation headed by psychologist

In the second phase, most interaction with others is based on shared cultural symbols. We are able to interpret how people feel about use based on symbols. In the third phase, we develop a self-concept based on our understanding of others reaction to us. The looking-glass self concept helps understand why children like Genie, can’t develop a sense of self, because there is nobody to mirror for them to develop any time of self- awareness. Genie was isolated and never had anyone there with her to teach her social skills.

As Genie cognitively progresses throughout the years after rescue, she gains the abilities to respond to others and interact with certain objects. Even though she did not properly develop her self identity during her childhood, there is evidence that she is beginning to conceptualize her sense of self during her teen years. Feral children, such as Genie, lack a self concept impairing their development. However, in order to solve this, they must require the agents of socialization, immerse themselves in culture, and undergo socialization methods, such as Mead’s “Stages of the Self.” Through constant nurturing and therapy, Genie would have a chance to develop her sense of self and recovery from her previous, feral state.

“Secret of the Wild Child” is about the experiences and development of a child that was in solitary confinement for thirteen years. Genie was the name they pinned on the child due to the similarities of being kept in isolation, then suddenly brought out to human society. During the first few months of life, children need to be exposed to other humans who will care and love for them because this creates a set of ideas and attitudes about who they are as independent beings (Brym et al. 2015,96). Genie’s isolation raised the question whether it was too late for her self image to emerge.

During the scene of Genie’s first trial run in her foster home, she was discovered “having the passion of hoarding things, especially containers of liquid.” On the surface, her action is considered a big improvement, however, there should have been concerns about her hoarding tendency. Considering, Genie is hoarding things in her bedroom, and most importantly, she is hoarding containers of liquid which can be interpreted as her instinct for survival since liquid is a common thought for water, and it is the main source of life. This arguably reflects her strong sense of insecurity even though she is presumably under an extensive care of a reliable foster family. Although there are concerns about Genie’s exposure to her first foster family, undeniably, this has become her opportunity to connect with the society since “family is the most important agent of primary socialization, the process of mastering the basic skills required to function in society during childhood.”

As they said in part of the video: is nature not just nurturing. Nevertheless, Genie never advanced to the same level as other children of her age, letting us evidence the impact lack of social interaction

Although shy, I loved my friends and siblings and thought the best in every situation. It wasn’t until I grew older and received the guidance and outside perspective of my adopted mom that I realized how awful my home life was. I’ve since begun analyzing my behaviors and emotions that ran through my mind as a child to realize how to overcome the abuse I’d endured. The six books I’ve chosen as mirrors identify the emotions and behaviors I see myself having at a young age of nine or ten years old.

Studies show that nurture has a bigger impact than nature. A feral child is a kid who has lived away from human contact, and she/he has little experience of being taught stuff. Studies show that feral children are not as smart, and they are “babies” when they are found. A girl named Jeanie was found when she was 13. When they found her, she acted like a baby.

2.0 BODY OF CONTENT The emotional development in middle childhood in Jean Piaget Theory those are described how the way that children are thinking developed as they are interacted with the world around them. The Piaget’s theory has four stages. For example is sensorimotor stage, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. Their emotions are also will increase influenced by their thinking.