Sefl Reflection

Name : Endemin Meggy Matulatua
ID : 2016 - 36 - 004
PSYCHOLINGUISTIC
Self Reflection
In this meeting,
We're learned about "Wild and isolated children and the critical age issue for language
learning". Group 4 also presentation about this material. I like that.
In this material we've learned how to conducting language deprivation experiments with
children, scientists have been on the lookout for cases that occur naturally, so to speak, i.e.
without their intervention, such as through peculiar circumstances or the perversity of human
behaviour.
Over the past few centuries there have been a number of reported cases of children raised by
wolves, dogs, pigs, sheep, and other animals. (A fascinat-ing collection of such cases is described
in Malson’s 1972 book Wolf Children.) These children are known as wild or feral children.
Victor: the Wild Boy of Aveyron.
The boy appeared to be 11 or 12 years old, was naked except for what was left of a tattered
shirt, and he made no sounds other than guttural animal-like noises.
Itard tries teaching speech but fails, Itard set up an ambitious programme with goals that
included social as well as language training. Speech training with Victor proved to be very
frustrating for Itard. It centred around simply trying to get Victor to repeat some words and
speech sounds. It was not clear, though, that the means of communication was actually
language rather than simply the recognition of environmental context.
Itard tries reading and writing with success, He then set about teaching Victor the letters of the
alphabet using letters on individual cards. Eventually, Victor did make progress in reading.
Initially, Victor took written words such as ‘book’ to mean a specific object, a particular book,
and eventually he learned to associate the words with classes of objects, in this example, all
books. Unfortunately, he did not follow up on teaching reading, which could have benefited
Victor greatly.
Itard tries again at speech, fails, then gives up, Itard devoted five years to Victor. Near the end of
that period, he tried once again to teach the boy to speak. These attempts failed too; soon
afterwards Itard decided to end his work with Victor. He arranged for Victor to live in a house
with Madame Guérin. Victor lived there for 18 years, continuing to be mute until his death in
1828 at the age of about 38.
Genie: raised in isolation.
Genie is discovered at 13 years of age, brutally abused.
At the time of her discovery, Genie was in a pitiful physical condition and appeared to have no
language. Based on the information later provided by her mother, the girl had started to begin
to acquire language just prior to her confinement, when she was around 20 months of age. This
is about the same age that Helen Keller lost her hearing and vision. However, if Genie had
learned to comprehend some basic elements of speech, she would have likely lost them after 12
years of living in silence.
Genie is given freedom and care, after just a few months of care, however, Genie changed
considerably. She grew, gained weight and strength, and was able to go on long walks. She had
an intense curiosity about the names of things in the world around her.
Genie responds linguistically and socially, Genie’s ability to understand speech had improved
quite rapidly, although her progress in speech production was very slow and continued to be
slow.
Genie reaches a peak in language learning, her language ability, both in terms of under-standing
and production, remained well below normal and her speech con-tinued to be ungrammatical.
Isabelle: confinement with a mute mother.
Isabelle (a pseudonym), who, because of her confinement with a mute mother, did not begin to
learn language until she gained her freedom at 6, 1/2 years of age.
Isabelle’s progress, Isabelle ‘has progressed from her first spoken word to full length sentences
intelligent questioning’ . Truly, this was a remarkable achievement. And so different from the
out-comes with Victor and Genie. Unfortunately, no further reports on Isabelle’s progress are
available to our knowledge.
Chelsea: began to learn language at age 32.
Misdiagnosed as retarded, not deaf. Initially misdiagnosed as retarded, and because she lived in
a rural area in Northern California, she did not receive any language training or instruction of
any kind. Unlike Victor and Genie, Chelsea grew up in a loving family environment.
Language development, Through language instruction, Chelsea has developed an extensive
vocabu-lary. Though Chelsea has developed rapidly in vocabulary and the use of language in a
wide range of speech acts (complaints, requests) and social rituals (greetings), she was unable
to form grammatically correct utter-ances and to remain on topic.
Helen Keller: the renowned deaf and blind girl
Becomes deaf and blind at 19 months then secures a teacher Keller was born normal and then,
due to illness, she became deaf and blind at the age of 19 months.Thus, before tragedy struck,
she had already experienced some degree of language learning and would probably have had
some degree of compre-hension and production. The teacher's always tried to teach Keller's
language with many ways, many ideas her used to teach Keller. That's all is success and Keller's
pass she study.
Oxana and Edik: raised by dogs
When Oxana was found, she behaved and moved around on all fours like a dog. She mostly
barked, could hardly speak, and did not seem to think that speaking was necessary. Her doctor,
Vladimir Nagorny, comments that they have been trying to find her an occupation and teach her
how to live among people, but most likely she will never be considered a normal person again.
Edik, he had to turn to stray dogs for sur-vival. Two years after his discovery, Edik was living in a
foster home. His language skills and grammar improved, but slowly.
A critical age for first-language learning?
Why did only Isabelle and Helen fully learn language? One thing is certain, and that is: without
exposure to language, children will not acquire language. Children need some form of exposure,
be it in the form of speech, signs, writing, or touch, before language learning can occur and that
exposure should be offered as early as possible in the child’s life.
Is there a critical age for first-language learning? Certainly, the critical age, if there is one, could
not be much younger than 6 or 7 years since that would exclude Isabelle and Helen, who in fact
did learn language after that age. Clearly, the ideal experimental situation for studying the
problem of a critical age for first-language learning has not yet presented itself.

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Name : Endemin Meggy Matulatua

Victor: the Wild Boy of Aveyron.

Genie: raised in isolation.

Genie is discovered at 13 years of age, brutally abused.

Isabelle: confinement with a mute mother.

Chelsea: began to learn language at age 32.

Helen Keller: the renowned deaf and blind girl

Oxana and Edik: raised by dogs

A critical age for first-language learning?

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