Question

SOSC 102 In case study Wild Child Speechless after Tortured life. Do you believe that Genie was taken advantage of by scientists? Did they do everything they could to help her? Or was she simply an experiment to study development and language acquisition?

Answer 1

When Genie was found by the social worker at the age of 13, she couldn’t talk and she was physically very weak. It was because of the fact that she was confined to a room tied to a potty chair, naked and endured abuse from her parents continuously. When she was rescued, she was taken as a study subject by group of psychologists who wanted not only to rehabilitate her but also prove that one’s environmental factors are important in language acquisition. It is believed that critical period lasts until 12 or till puberty and the ability to use language efficiently becomes difficult. She was helped for a while in the research centre but was not able to develop language except using three word in a sentence rarely, although she was able to pick up words initially.

In my opinion, the psychologists were involved in helping Genie learn language while at the same time used her case to prove the importance of critical period in language learning. So, it was mutually beneficial.

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