Wild Child – The Story of Feral Children
Kate Roach
December 2003
American clinical neuroscientist Dr Bruce Perry has devoted his life to understanding and helping children who have been neglected, abused and maltreated. He never ceases to be amazed by their resilience: 'We should look at these children, not with pity, but with awe. They have this kernel of humanity that will not be crushed. You can't imagine what these children go through, being raised in a cage, in a dark room, nobody talking to you, nobody giving you anything to play with, nobody telling you you're special, nothing. It's fascinating that you could go through something like that and that you would still be willing, after what human beings have done to you, to put your hand out and touch another person.'
A terrified three-year-old sits sobbing in an outdoor kennel, cuddled up to a dog for comfort. She has been thrown out of the house by a drunken parent for crying with hunger. Another infant cries alone for hours in a dark room where she is left dirty and hungry. When her cries bring no comfort she turns and passively faces the wall. These are typical experiences in the extraordinary lives of Oxana, Edik and Genie, the children shown on the Channel 4 BodyShock series programme Wild Child. Sadly, their stories are not uncommon – millions of children across the globe experience a life of chaos and terror everyday.
We are all born with a full quota of brain cells, but in infancy they are poorly organised. During childhood, our brains become organised into networks of connected cells that mediate the way we feel, think and behave. Our deepest wishes and saddest moments, our loves and losses, all are stored, catalogued, sorted and organised, in the three-pound organ that defines us. Our brains make us who we are and our childhood experience makes our brains what they are.
A baby's brain is largely determined by genetic potential; babies arrive pre-wired to execute a number of survival strategy reflexes, like crying when hungry. But a baby's brain also comes with networks of connected brain cells (called neural networks) that have no specific function. How these will later function depends largely on sensory input. As a result of repeated experience, specific neural networks are formed and strengthened. Others undergo a kind of pruning, whereby connections that haven't been strengthened by experience are eliminated. The end result is that the brain is sculpted to fit the life of the child. Eventually, the structure and function of the brain will come to reflect the individual lifestyle of the person.
Fear changes children's brains
Consistent, predictable nurturing and stimulation is essential if children are to develop their potential. Fear brought on by neglect or abuse inhibits neural development because it deters learning, exploration and trust in others – all things that the brain needs in order to develop fully.
There is much debate in the scientific arena about the timing of development. If attributes don't develop at the usual ages or they are delayed, can they be learned later or has the critical period passed? Having never really heard language in her life, Genie, aged 12, was able to learn words, but not sentences. But Oxana, on the other hand, who was discovered living with dogs, aged nine, was able to master language. Individual cases will vary of course, and there may have been another reason why Genie could not master speech – her father had beaten her when she made a noise. Psychologists hold out good hopes for Edik who was found living with dogs at the age of four.
On the whole, the earlier a developmentally deprived child is discovered, the better are their prospects of recovery, in every respect. Though their ability to recover can be astounding, no child who has been neglected or abused can survive totally unscathed.
Below is a timeline noting key stages in human psychological development from birth to seven years old. As you read it, think of the children who through tragic circumstances miss out on many of the steps along the path. And remember the words of Dr Bruce Perry: 'We should look at these children, not with pity, but with awe.'
Timeline
At birth …
A baby's brain is already 25% of its adult weight.
Babies have a reflex-like tendency to turn and look at faces or face-like patterns more than other visual cues. This behaviour ensures they get maximum exposure to faces and from that learn to differentiate between individuals and to read facial expressions and body language.
Babies prefer voices to other sounds; talking to them makes them feel safe and gets them accustomed to hearing language. They display a particular preference for their mother's voice.
Babies come packaged with six ready-made emotions: anger, fear, surprise, disgust, joy and sadness. Psychologists have developed complex methods of reliably interpreting the facial expressions that infants make when expressing these emotions. These expressions show great similarity across cultures. Given a nasty tasting substance, babies will make a disgusted face and try to spit it out. When entertained by an adult, they will show pleasure with a smile. These facial expressions have evolved in order to give adults clues as to what the baby needs. If nurtured, this ability to express emotions will form the basis of social and emotional relationships.
At three months …
The brain reaches about 40% of its adult weight.
The cells of the brain are creating an evermore complex network of connections, reflecting the increasingly sophisticated behaviour and understanding of the baby.
Babies begin to recognise familiar faces.
At six months …
The brain is 50% of its adult weight – something that the rest of the body won't be until the child is about 10 years old.
At seven to eight months …
As well as developing a fear of strangers, babies become capable of missing their mothers (or carers). This is a sign that the infant has made its first enduring attachment to another person, and, one that is not dependent on the physical presence of that person. In earlier months, attachments are indiscriminate – the baby will cry to call the attention of any adult. Now, the baby has learned that individuals are not interchangeable. This is a key point in development. Though capable of missing people, it will be another couple of months before they will search for missing objects, like their toys.
At twelve months …
Children begin to utter their first words. The words they use are very similar to the babbling sounds that they will have been making for some time. Considering babies' babbling is similar all over the world, it isn't surprising to find that the words they use for 'mum' and 'dad' are similar across many different languages. First words are most often used to describe things that are important in the baby's life, like mum, dad, toys, food, pets, brothers and sisters. Also they are inclined to name moving objects before they acquire words for static objects, so 'car' might come before 'lamp'.
At eighteen months …
Children begin to put words together to form rudimentary sentences, like 'Bye-bye teddy'.
Play becomes more sophisticated. At some stage between one and two years old, babies switch from merely exploring objects by feeling, shaking or sucking them, to making things out of them, a brick tower, for example.
The child is able to use their imagination. Pretend games begin to creep in. Objects are used to represent anything the child desires, a cushion might be a castle or a banana might be a phone.
Early pretend play often coincides with the first use of words as symbols. Children first use words by association and only in the presence of the object they are naming, but now they can begin to use words in the absence of the named object.
Cognitive development is underway, as children begin to use categories as a way of understanding the world. Give an 18-month-old child a number of toys, some of which are used for eating and others for washing, and they will sort them according to their use. This is an early stage of concept formation; one of the ways we all make the world seem less complex. Whenever we encounter a new object or experience, we immediately try to make sense of it by relating it to objects or experiences that we are already familiar with. Without this reaction, the sheer diversity of new events in our lives would be overwhelming.
At two years …
Children acquire more sophisticated ways of relating to other people. A six-month-old will cry as a reaction to pain, but a two-year-old will cry to summon their mum who can deal with the pain. What is more, the two-year-old will cry louder the further away mum is, and, if this doesn't work he or she will try other attention-attracting tactics, like shouting, following or clinging. This is a milestone: the child now understands they can effect how other people behave. The child's behaviour will become increasingly motivated by their feelings and desires. This is a shift away from the motivations of the younger child, whose more reflex-like behaviour is a response to circumstances.
Children begin to display new emotions and levels of self-awareness. Shame, pride, embarrassment and guilt all appear at around this time. These emotions are called the self-conscious emotions because they require a sense of self. It's possible to feel angry without any notion of self, but to feel shame or pride, we must have some objective view of ourselves to compare against a standard (set either by ourselves or others). Then we can conclude 'I've achieved something good' or 'I've done something awful'.
The use of symbolism is increasing. Around this time, children can feel emotion from symbolic representations. A two-year-old can be frightened when listening to a scary story, even though they're safely huddled up in a chair at home. At the same time, they become aware that pictures are meaningful and are able to point to a photograph of themselves and happily shout 'Me'.
Children gradually develop control over how they display their emotions. They are just beginning to learn manners, like not showing disappointment when a present turns out to be something unwanted.
Language development is in full flow. From now until they are about five years old, children learn new words at the astonishing rate of about nine per day. Between the ages of 18 months and five years, children don't appear to learn language as much as acquire it. Most experts would agree that children are genetically pre-programmed to acquire language. In fact, language is actually very difficult to retard. It takes extreme circumstances of neglect, abuse or brain damage to prevent children from learning language. Even deafness cannot interfere with the drive to communicate; other communication channels such as sign language may also be grasped at this age.
At three Years …
Children are developing their capacity for memory and beginning to talk about the past in an increasingly coherent manner. Up until now, past events are only referred to when they are just completed, but now they have the first real sense of their own personal history. At this age, the memory of events is greatly enhanced when the event and the memory of it is shared with a parent or adult. By sharing memories, children learn what to remember, how to remember it and the relevance of memories in following their own hopes and desires.
From about this age, children are sufficiently developed to begin to choose their friends. This is a milestone in their ability to form relationships with others. This development is suppressed though if the child has not made secure attachments earlier in their life, for instance, to their mother. In younger children, interactions rarely go beyond staring, touching and toy-snatching. But at three, children are more capable of playing together rather than just alongside one another. From now on, periods of playing together get longer and interactions become increasingly complex and selective. Peer relationships play an important role in childhood, contributing to social development and the establishment of a sense of identity. Friendship is important right through childhood and into adolescence, as being accepted and appreciated leads to feelings of self-worth: 'They like me, so I must be good'.
Children understand that others have emotions and begin to refer to them in words. Phrases like 'Mummy cross, me paint wall' are typical. By the age of three, children have moved on from just describing actions like 'smiling' or 'crying', to actually describing the feelings that underlie those actions. This is a shift to a psychological level. Now they can describe not only their own but also other peoples emotional states too.
The earlier propensity to categorise objects has developed into something far more complex. Children are now able to hold mental images that contain a sequence of events, or 'scripts' as psychologists call them. For example, a family meal involves preparing the food, laying the table, sitting down, eating and clearing up. At three, most children will be able to recount the order of mealtime events and the parts that family members play. In a year or two, the child's mealtime script will also include the behaviour and emotions that are socially expected of them.
Children make another step in language acquisition by adding grammar to their fast growing vocabulary. They don't have to be taught this; they pick it up by hearing language around them. They appear to pick up rules like the adding of 'ed' to verbs when signifying a past event. A comical early feature of rule learning is that children will use such rules indiscriminately to start with: 'play' becomes 'played', 'slept' becomes 'sleeped'. The fact that children use words they have not actually ever heard, like 'goed', 'wented' and 'comed', means they are not learning simply by imitation. On the contrary, it's as though children are actively engaged in rule learning. But as with all development, language progresses more quickly and easily if children have responsive carers who provide support and practice.
At four years …
Children have the ability to consider another person's view even though it conflicts with theirs. For instance, when told the following story, children respond differently, depending on their age:
Sally and Anne are friends. They are in a room playing with Sally's marble. Sally puts the marble in her basket and leaves the room. Anne removes the marble and puts it in her own basket. Sally returns to play with her marble. Where is the first place she will she look for it?
Of course, Sally would first look in her own basket, as that's where she left it. But most children of three and under say she will look in Anne's bag, because that's where they know the marble to be. They can't attribute a false belief to Sally and use that to predict her actions. At about four though, children begin to fathom that Sally will look in her own basket first. They know that others may hold beliefs that don't reflect reality, but which will still influence how they behave. This is called a theory of mind; it means we can put ourselves in another's position – obviously an important feature of our relationships.
Children begin acting out fantasy games like cowboys and indians. This role-play is an important way for children to explore their own emotions and those of others, and to expand their cognitive skills and ability to negotiate in social situations.
At five years …
Children begin to take part in rule-governed games. They begin to understand that play can be governed by mutually agreed rules to which they and the others taking part must conform. These increasingly take the place of pretend play and are excellent practise in socialising skills.
At six years …
The accuracy of memory recall in eyewitness accounts is as good as an adult's, as long as the time interval between event and recall is less than a month.
At seven years …
Self-awareness becomes more accurate, whilst self-esteem takes a dip. When younger children are asked to describe themselves, they will only recount positive traits, often expressing them in a haphazard way. At seven though, children will include their shortcomings as well as their achievements, and their descriptions are more closely aligned with teacher reports and school performance.
Resources
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third party sites
Websites
The Child Trauma Academy
http://www.childtrauma.org
American not-for-profit organisation based in Houston, Texas whose mission is to help improve the lives of traumatised and maltreated children and their families. Dr Bruce Perry, a contributor to the Channel 4 Wild Child programme, is a senior fellow of the academy.
Feral Children.com
http://www.feralchildren.com
Well referenced and documented site. Houses a comprehensive list of cases of feral and confined children, discusses the nature of human versus animal behaviour and looks at communications and linguistics.
Harry Harlow and the Macaque Monkey Experiments
http://www.nepsy.com/book/0302_ne_book.html
Book review that looks at the work of Harlow who set up experiments in the 1960s, revealing the disastrous consequences of maternal deprivation on macaques.
Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A history of feral children
http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,6761,635802,00.html
Guardian review of Michael Newton's book on feral children. Newton was a contributor to the Channel 4 Wild Child programme.
Wild Children
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/thematerialworld_20030227.shtml
BBC presenter Quentin Cooper writes about feral children and interviews Michael Newton, author of Savage Girls and Wild Boys, and Dr James Law, Professor of Language and Communication studies at City University, London.
Books
Feral Children and Clever Animals: Reflections on human nature by Douglas Keith Candland (Oxford University Press, 1996)
Humans have long shown a wish to connect with the animals around them. In assembling and interpreting the compelling tales in this book, Candland offers us a new understanding not only of the animal kingdom, but of the very nature of humanity and our place in the great chain of being.
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The Forbidden Experiment: The story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron by Roger Shattuck (Kodansha America, 1994)
Shattuck asks: How do children acquire language? How do deaf and mute children learn? Can children who have been neglected or abused ever learn to trust the world?
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Genie: A scientific tragedy by Russ Rymer (Perennial, 1994)
The compelling story of a young woman's emergence into the world after spending her first 13 years strapped to a chair, and of her rescue and exploitation by scientists hoping to gain insights into language acquisition and what it means to be human.
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Introducing Child Psychology by H Rudolph Schaffer (Blackwell Publishers, 2003)
An introduction to child psychology that tells us about the nature and development of children. It begins with an explanation of the aims and principles of child psychology and describes the distinctive methods used to obtain knowledge about children, giving special attention to the most recent research findings.
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Kaspar Hauser: Europe's child by Martin Kitchen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001)
In 1828, a strange youth, barely able to speak and hardly able to walk, appeared in Nuremberg. This case of a 'wild man' excited widespread curiosity, and many prominent figures wanted to test their medical theories on such a promising subject. Many claimed he was the rightful heir to the Grand Duchy of Baden. This book examines the many ramifications of this extraordinary case.
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Language Development in Exceptional Circumstances by Dorothy Bishop and Kay Mogford (Psychology Press, 1993)
Includes a chapter on early childood, which talks about language development in circumstances of extreme deprivation.
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Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the science of affection by Deborah Blum (Perseus Publishing, 2002)
A biographical account of the seminal work of Harry Harlow and his macaque monkeys during the 1960s. At a period when most psychologists believed infants were better off isloated from their mothers, Harlow revealed that these monkeys would choose a soft cloth imitation mother for comfort, over one made of wire that provided milk.
Buy this book from WHsmith
Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A history of feral children by Michael Newton (Faber & Faber, 2003)
A collection of six extraordinary histories of abandoned and feral children. Much more than just an account of the weird and the bizarre, this is an ambitious exploration of what these stories, and our fascination with them, tell us about the shifting boundary between nature and civilisation.
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Wild Boy by Jill Dawson (Sceptre, 2003)
In post-Revolution France, a child is discovered in the forests near Aveyron where he seems to have been living wild for seven years. He is handed over to the ambitious Dr Itard, who names him Victor and attempts to educate and civilise him. However, the boy soon becomes a pawn in the raging debate about nature versus nurture. This is a fictional account of a mysterious case that still resonates today.
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The Wild Boy of Aveyron by H Lane (Harvard University Press, 1979)
Covers the complete history of Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron, and places it in the context of the development of special needs education and the philosophies of the time. In a readable style that combines narrative with material from primary sources, Lane lays out the errors that Dr Itard made in his attempts at educating and socialising Victor.
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The Wild Girl, Natural Man and the Monster: Dangerous experiments in the Age of Enlightenment by Julia V Douthwaite (University of Chicago, 2002)
This study looks at the lives of the most famous 'wild children' of 18th century Europe. The author recounts reports of feral children and offers a fascinating glimpse into beliefs about the difference between man and beast, and the means once used to civilize the uncivilized.
Buy this book from WHsmith