How Does Being Deprived of Socialization Effect Children Under Extreme Cases of Isolation?

 

Tiffany Dietz

Ms.McDonald

English IV

05/06/09

How Does Being Deprived of Socialization Effect Children

 Under Extreme Cases of Isolation?

What makes a person who they are? What is necessary that infants depend upon for survival? What is the thing that makes a child a genius, or makes a child average, but without it can make a child autistic? The answer is socialization, a process used by society to make you the person you are today. Most Children by the age of five have already learned the basics’ of being a human, understanding emotions and certain values taught in life. Under extreme isolation these cultural values we learn can be disrupted and sometimes because of this it can destroy a child’s life (Thio).

What would it be like not being considered a true human being, living a life without being able to take part in your own society, like most kids your age? Imagine a girl at the age of ten not learning the things most normal ten year olds are learning. Instead of learning to read chapters out of a book, she is learning to eat on her own for the first time. This young girl is now being recognized as one of the worse cases of abuse in years. She is “The Girl in the Window” (“Saved from Squalor: Inside the Case of a Feral Child”).

            She lived with her mother and two older brothers for almost three years at a rundown house where they were renting. That’s where someone first saw the face of the girl in the window and two police officers went into the house not knowing what to expect. Although they didn’t know what to expect no one could have imagined what they had seen when walking into the house that day. There was urine and feces smeared on the walls, the carpet and everything in the house. One of the detectives walked down the hall to a room the size of a walk-in closet where he found her lying. She was lying on her side, on an old mattress saturated with her waste. Her hair was black, matted, covered with lice, and she had bug bites from head to toe.

            “Choking back rage, he approached the mother. ‘How could you let this happen?’ The mother’s statement was: ‘I’m doing the best I can.’ The detective said. ‘I told her, ‘The best you can sucks!’” The little girls name was Danielle she was nearly seven years old and only weighed forty-six pounds. Due to severe negligence the doctors thought she would be disabled for the rest off her life, for what ever made a person a human seemed to be missed in this young child (DeGregory).

            Danielle is one of the most recent cases of feral children, but she is not the only cases known. There have been many cases since the fourteenth century, more than fifty cases have been recorded. In the United States, there have been a lot less well-known cases all being very similar. Isabella and Anna oddly were both found at age six in 1938 and were both born to unwed mothers in different states. Then you have Genie who was found at age thirteen in 1970, nearly deprived of a normal life for twice as long as Anna and Isabella. (Thio p.73)

            The girl therapists came to call Genie was the most recent cases of feral children, nearly thirty five years before Danielle’s case appeared. Genie was only thirteen like the wild boy found in France, she was studied at hospitals and laboratories (Degregory). Although she wasn’t raised by animals she acted like a wild animal, walked kind of like a bunny. This often forgotten child was left strapped to a potty chair for most of her young childhood life. She knew very few words like “stop it” and “no more” (Ward. “Genie”).

             This child lived with twelve years of confinement and her only contact was with her abusive father. For four years Genie was put under intense care in a children’s hospital. While there she made very little progress to become normal. She eventually learned to speak, but when put in the spotlight of storytellers and filmmakers, Genie regressed and again she was speechless (James).

            Unlike Genie, Anna and Isabella were not beaten by their father. Anna’s mother of age twenty six lived with her father because she was mentally impaired. The first six months, Anna was put up for adoption and spent her life in various institutions, but was returned to her mother. She was put in the attic and feed only enough to keep her alive. Even after she was found and learned to walk and care for herself, she died in 1942 at age ten. (Ward “Anna”).

            Isabella had a small advantage over the others, having regular contact with her mother. Her mother was deaf, but also confined in a room by Isabella’s grandfather. She learned to communicate with her mother very little and was still considered severely retarded. Isabella feared strangers and reacted violently towards men. She later learned to speak and participate normally in school as other children her age did. (Ward “Isabella”).

            “Once, when Dani was trying to climb onto her horse, the mother of a boy in the therapeutic class turned to Diane. ‘You’re so lucky,’ Diane remembers the women saying. ‘Lucky?’ Diane asked. The woman nodded. ‘I know my son will never stand on his own, will never be able to climb onto a horse. You have no idea what your daughter might be able to do’” (DeGregory). Some people may consider her lucky but in all this child is lucky to be alive no child should ever go through what these children have been through.

           

Works Cited

DeGregory, Lane. “The Girl in the Window”. 28 April 2009. 31 July 2008. <

James, D. Susan. “Wild Child Speechless After Tortured Life”. 7 May 2008. 1 May 2009. <

“Saved from Squalor: Inside the Case of a Feral Child”. Baynews9. 2 August 2008. 27 March 2009. <

Thio, Alex. Society Myths and Realities: An Introduction to Sociology. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. 2007.

Ward, Andrew. “ Anna.” Feral children: 27 March 2009. <

--- “Genie, A Modern-day Wild Child.” Feral children: 22 March 2009. <

--- “Isabella.” Feral children: 22 March 2009

               <

 

Reviews

[...]

i wonder this poem have 1021 views and no one make reaction . i wonder. it s very important you make this record. we need do something about it. we know this happening every single day. but nobody ask why and how this stop it. when we read it we say that s realy bad. and after 5 minutes we forgett what we read. i realy approciate what you write. we have to remember there is still children living at the hell and we have to help them . thank you very much.