Wild Child: The Story Of Feral Children

At age two, most of the child's brain is not fully developed, it is seventy-five percent of adult weight. At age five the brain is ninety-five percent of adult weight. Based on solid scientific evidence, the brain is not a completed organ at birth. Post mortem studies reveal that myelination - one of the five basic processes that make up brain development begins in the brain stem and cerebellum before birth but is not completed in the frontal cortex of the brain until late adolescence period. Myelination process begins before birth, that is during the prenatal period - it is the first process to occur in brain development. Myelin, a fatty layer accumulates around nerve cells to allow nerve impulses to move more quickly - protecting the neuron and acting like an insulation for the human brain. The cerebral hemispheres are the first myelinated. By the second year, the cerebrum is completed. During the process of brain development, there is an increase in the axonal connection which contributes to the growth of the brain. According to neuroscientists, the brain is divided into two- the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere. The left side of the body is controlled by the right hemisphere, while the left side of the brain which is the dominant part controls the right side of the

Susan Wiley, or most commonly known as Genie the Wild Child was born on the 18th of April 1957. She was the fourth child of Clark and Irene Wiley and was one of two children that survived childhood. Her parents were married in 1944 Clark was 20 years his wife’s senior and their marriage was riddled with domestic violence. Their first two children were both suspiciously killed before their first birthday. It was reported that Clark Wiley extremely disliked children and was very mentally unstable. The third of the Wiley children John lived with Clarks mother Pearl, when she was killed in a hit and run accident Clark held his son responsible which only added to his fragile mental health.

Victor is a boy who tries to impress and get a girl to like him.

Due to Victor’s unwillingness to accept him, the creature was unable to conform to societal norms. From the creature’s very first moments, he is feared by others - the instant his eyes open, his creator cries out in terror and runs to his quarters. If only Victor had stayed and attempted to nurture his creation, instead of having “turned from [him] in disgust” (93), the creature may have enjoyed a gentle, upbringing in which he

He had planned to talk about his book Macho, but when he faced the crowd of teachers, his experience at school came back into his mind. He said he had faced a lot of abuse and his efforts to overcome bad teaching and become a writer. He admired good teachers with all his heart but criticized bad teachers. That presentation was not what the audience expected. Some reacted cruelly and left, but most of audience stayed and listened to him. After that, Victor was invited to give more speeches to let the audience know what worked in their education system.

The TLC documentary Wild Child; the Story of Feral Children is a documentary that tells the few of many stories of children that have turned to a feral lifestyle due to parental negligence. Feral, meaning undomesticated, is the used term to describe these children because of the actions they exhibit. The accounts in this documentary range from a young girl who “was raised with the wolves” per say, but instead with her dog, to a little boy who was abandoned in a Ukrainian loft and provided the town strays with food and shelter in return for protection from them and other strays. In some of the cases detailed in this video, these children were far too old by the time they were discovered and missed an extremely crucial time frame in which

The latest research into development and learning of babies and young children shows that early stimulation are vital to the healthy development of brain. Babies are born with 100 billion neuron cells and they need to connect together in order to function. Many of these connections are made as result of what a baby senses and experiences. Stimulation, sufficient sleep and healthy diet makes a difference in allowing connections to be made. Development of brain begins well before birth. Neurons (cells in the brain which transmit electrical impulses to other cells) are formed between the 10th and 20th week of pregnancy. These cells are critical as they will later join together to allow the brain to function properly. Electrical pulses pass between cells via dendrites and axons which causes the connection between the neuron cells. The dendrites and axons of the neurons develop and begin the process of joining up in the final two months of pregnancy. Those that have not made enough strong connections are killed off and this is one reason why some children are

I was surprised to learn about our documentary assignment yesterday. Watching documentaries is one of my favorite things to do, so naturally, I’m struggling with choosing which documentary to write my essay on. Recently, aside from the documentary I mentioned last week, I also had the opportunity to watch one of the most widely known, award-winning documentaries regarding child language development, Secret of the Wild Child.

Moreover, Victor also explains that, “I was indifferent… to my schoolfellows in general (19).” Usually while Victor was away at school, for the first time feeling the absence of his “familiar faces”, his parents, made him feel isolated, alienated and “totally unfitted for the company of strangers (25).” Victor’s struggle with his natural “repugnance to new countenances (25)” led to him feeling truly alone for the first time in his life and at such an early age. Ultimately, the natural feelings and nature of Victor combined with his comfortable and sheltered upbringing had left him docile and timid. This reality made the culture shock of leaving home a lonely one. This early beginning contributed exponentially to Victor’s future isolation and antics.

The article “Your Child’s Brain” by Sharon Begley focuses on defining the key factors in the development of a child’s brain. Our brains consist of millions of neurons and at birth some neurons have predetermined roles, and the rest of the neurons in our brain are saved for assignment and are used later in development. Shaping and molding your brain and the connections it makes are extremely vital to a human’s development, and all begins at the fetus stage of pregnancy and is extremely important from child birth and throughout infancy. Every interaction an individual receives can affect that individual forever. Once the brain begins to develop in an individual, a timer in the brain commences.

The author invites the reader on his own journey to understanding how the developing brain works. He learns that to facilitate recovery, the loss of

A feral child is a child who has been in isolation from human contact from a very young age. They have little or no experience of human care, behavior, or have little knowledge of human language. This therefore hinders their development of human social skills. Some feral children have been confined, a lot of times it would be by their own parents. In some cases, child abandonment occurs due to the parents’ rejection of a child’s severe intellectual or physical impairment.

Victor’s paltry parenting furthers his creation’s suffering, since it is a minority. Consequently, isolation is more difficult for minorities because the majority (humans) are ignorant towards the minority. Moreover,

But what if we were completely untouched by society, isolated from all forms of humanity? Without other people to interact with and learn from, babies would grow to be nothing more than a wild animal. Every human being is born with the potential to develop into an intelligent, social creature, but without human influence a person can never develop into what we consider to be a member of human society. One can clearly see this through the reports of feral children. There has been only a few cases reported and very few studied. In cases from the past feral children are reported as wild children who could not speak or communicate in anyway. These children bit, scratched, growled, and walked on all fours. In addition to this primal behavior, they ate grass, ravenously tared apart small animals and devoured the raw meat. The most shocking quality of the children was their apparent lack of sensitivity to pain or cold. (Henslin 66-7) The most famous case of a feral child was “The wild boy of Aveyron” in 1798. At first this case would have been written off as just another folk tale, but a French scientist, Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, conducted immense studies of the

A newborns brain growth is rapid and their growth and development reflects their experiences and social relationships (Berger,2014). From two weeks after conception until two weeks after birth the brain grows more rapidly than any other organ in the body (Berger,2014). We will now examine what biologically takes place inside the brain of an infant to better try to understand why development at this stage is so crucial. A newborns brain has billions of neurons, that are located in the portion of the brain called the Cortex, and they regulate and control thought, feeling, and sensation (Berger, 2014). In addition, research has found that children younger than