Wild children: childhoods without contact with humanity

Victor of Aveyron and other children who lived away from society. What became of their lives?

"The young boy was found lost, in a wild state and full of scars from animal bites. He seemed immune to heat and cold, tore clothes people tried to put on him, and refused to eat cooked food, consuming only raw food."

This description may be reminiscent of some fictional characters like Tarzan o Mowgli from Jungle Book.

However, on this occasion they refer to Victor of Aveyronone of the best known cases of "wild child". This young man was found by hunters at the end of 1799 in a forest in the town of Aveyron, with the characteristics described above, with a large scar on his neck, probably made with a knife or sharp object, which suggests that they may have tried to end his life.

The case of Victor of Aveyron

The boy in question had been sighted on several occasions climbing trees, running on all fours, running on all fours, running on all fours, running on all fours, running on all fours, and so on.The boy in question had been spotted on multiple occasions climbing trees, running on all fours, drinking from streams and eating acorns and roots, until he was finally captured when he approached farms in search of food during the winter.

Doctors at the time thought the boy was mentally retarded as he did not understand or respond to language. Victor would be adopted by a teacher named Itardwho considered that the infant only had a deficit in language development due to the extended period the child was supposed to have subsisted in solitude.

While a woman named Mrs. Guerin was in charge of the child's care, Itard would try to educate and reintroduce the little wild child into society, trying to teach him language, moral conduct and social norms.

However, in spite of dedicating long years to this task and of the importance that Itard's work had (being his methods taken into account a posteriori by educational methodologies such as Montesori) no great successes were achieved, abandoning the attempt of education and leaving the child under the tutelage of Mrs. Guerin. Victor would die at the age of forty, still under her care.

What is a wild child?

Victor and many others like him are considered feral children; this category includes infants who have been isolated from society for an extended period of time during childhood and/or adolescence, either because they have been abandoned in a wild environment, lost, or held or confined during infancy or puberty.

These children present serious alterations both in behavioral and cognitive aspectsThese children present serious alterations in both behavioral and cognitive aspects, as a result of the lack of acquisition of knowledge and skills that allow them to coexist and participate in the social life of a community.

It should be noted that there is a certain variability in the cases observed. There are three basic types of wild childrenThe following are some of the characteristics of wild children: children who have lived in solitude for a long time (as in the case of Victor of Aveyron), those who survived in a hostile environment being cared for by other animal species, and infants who have been mistreated and confined for a large part of their lives.

Characteristics of feral children

One of the most obvious symptoms is the absence or poor development of language. Although different authors have disagreed as to whether human language is a totally learned ability or whether the structures necessary for it already exist from birth, there is evidence of the existence of periods of learning in which there is an explosive development of some abilities such as language. These periods are called the critical period.

In the case of language, experts have pointed out that the critical period occurs between the ages of three and four years.. Thus, if the appropriate stimulation is not provided at this stage, the child's abilities will not develop correctly, hindering his or her evolution and making it difficult for him or her to adapt correctly to the social environment. Not only linguistic abilities would be affected, but also representational, relational and even the construction of personal identity.

Antisocial children?

In addition to the lack of language, another of the main deficiencies of these children, and the one that explains most of the rest, is the lack of socialization.. Because through social interaction one learns and exchanges information with others, it is possible to develop perspectives and ways of thinking and acting that enrich the personal repertoire and contribute to improve adaptation to the environment.

Due to their deficient or null socialization, feral children are not capable of participating in society, acting according to what they have learned throughout their lives in the habitat in which they have grown up. That is, their attitudes and skills make them capable of subsisting in the environment in which they have grown up, but are not applicable to community life.

Another element common to most cases is the avoidance of human contact. Both physically and emotionally, these children try to distance themselves as far as possible from their peers, which has made the treatment of the cases difficult in the early stages.

This is explained by the fact that, in addition to the fact that they have had no or aversive contact with human beings for a long time, these children have been removed against their will, these children have been removed against their will from the environment in which they have grown up.In the cases where they have been adopted by animals, they may have even seen their rescuer die at the hands of humans.

Other known cases of feral children

In addition to the case of Victor, described above, there are a number of other examples. We will now examine the story of two more of them.

Amala and Makala, the wolf girls of India

On October 9, 1920, two terrified and dirty girls were looking in terror at an armed crowd gathered around them, being protected from the crowd by a she-wolf. The people around them, inhabitants of the village of Godamuri (in India), opened fire on the she-wolf, and had it not been for the intervention of a local reverend, Joseph Amrito Lal Singh, they would have killed the girls, believing them to be spirits.

Both little girls were caught and taken with great resistance on their part to an orphanage run by the Reverend.where he and his family would try to reeducate them and reintroduce them into society.

The symptoms of isolation

From the very beginning, the girls showed a high level of aggression towards humans, biting and scratching those who tried to approach them and allowing only their own company and that of the local dogs. They would tear off clothing that was put on them and showed difficulty in standing upright. Both girls walked on all foursThey seemed to have no sense of heat or cold. Their interaction with others was limited to grunts, which made socialization very difficult to achieve. Both detested cooked food, eating only raw meat on the ground in the yard.

Like the wolves that had cared for them, both girls tended to sleep during the day and live at night. It was not uncommon to hear them howling during the night. and seemed to have a somewhat more developed sense of smell and night vision than normal.

Unfortunately, a year after their entry into the orphanage, three-year-old Amala died of dysentery. Her sister had to be forcibly separated from the mortal remains, reacting with tears and great sadness. Over time Kamala would begin to make small advances in socialization and language acquisition, acquiring about 30 words and beginning to walk upright. Eventually she was able to communicate with the Reverend and his family through monosyllabic words, until finally the little girl died of a Heart attack.She eventually died of typhus at the age of 15.

Genie's case

Like that of Victor d'Aveyron, the case of Genie is one of the best known "wild child" cases, this time located in the state of California. The child in question, born in the 1950s with severe health problems (incompatible RH, congenital hip dislocation and possible intellectual disability), was locked by her father in a small room and grew up tied to a chair during the day and caged at night from the age of twenty months to thirteen years, with a forced diet based on baby food and other such mistreatment.

It was not until she was thirteen years old that Genie's mother, along with her, managed to escape from her husband. After a few weeks she went to the welfare office, and the police subsequently took the child into their custody. The child showed absent speech, malnutrition and behavioral difficulties such as compulsive masturbation. such as compulsive masturbation.

Re-educating Genie

As with Victor of Aveyron and sisters Amala and Kamala, Genie was treated by a team of doctors, linguists and psychologists in order to reeducate her and integrate her into society. with the aim of re-educating her and integrating her into society. Genie's is the case of a wild child that has shown the most evolution, being able to create sentences and relate words, although with an incorrect sentence structure.

Although the intervention was somewhat successful, the Mental Health Association of the United States considered that the progress was not sufficient and finally it was decided to suspend the budget for the girl, who would end up going through different adoptive families. Unfortunately, in some of them she was also abused, as a result of which she regressed to her previous state and stopped speaking again.

At the present time Genie is currently living in an adult care facility.No further information about her has been released due to ethical considerations about her privacy.

Brain plasticity and the critical period

Childhood is a stage of life in which we are particularly sensitive to changes, to the marks left on us by our environment. This means, among other things, that during the first years of our lives, we have a unique ability to learn, to learn from our environment. we have a unique capacity to learn and to detect patterns in all those experiences that happen to us. This is very well captured in the way we begin to learn and internalize a language, for example; a technically very complicated task that we nevertheless master with astonishing speed as children.

However, this learning ability, linked to a neurological phenomenon known as brain plasticity, is double-edged. Just as we are very sensitive in childhood to what happens to us, we are also very sensitive to what does not happen to us. Specifically, the fact that we have not learned to master language and to socialize with other human beings who master it means that, at a certain age threshold, the so-called critical period, we become incapable of learning to use language.

At that point our brain no longer has the capacity to modify itself in such a profound way as to internalize such complex learning. to internalize such complex learning. Moreover, this affects all our cognitive abilities, since in a way language influences the way we think. In the case of wild children, this is clear.

Final thought

The circumstances surrounding these types of cases have been a breeding ground for numerous investigations trying to find out whether someone raised in isolation could shed light on the effect of upbringing and the influence of society or whether characteristics such as language are innate or acquired, with multiple facets of these children's lives being explored.

In any case, it is imperative to always take into account the ethical considerations of thorough research into this phenomenon, as it can be very detrimental to the children and their integrity.