Genie Secrets of the Wild Child

Genie
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Abstract
Genie’s case is one that comes with both intrigue and a sad appeal. Having been discovered after thirteen years of isolation, Genie did not have much language skills. This is from the fact that she did not have much interaction with the outside environment. This paper tries to establish the language development process with reference to Genie’s life. The participant in this case is Genie and the methodology used is the evaluation of secondary data from past research and theories. The paper evaluates the language development processes with reference to the behaviorists, interactionists and nativists theory. According to the behaviorists, the fact that Genie did not speak is due in part to the negative reinforcement that she got from her solitude and treatment from her father. According to the interactionist theory, given that Genie had minimal social interaction, this would explain her lack of language development skills. The nativists theory on the other hand points to every human having a language development device, however, this theory is rather limited in that case of Genie lack of language skills.
Key Words:
Language
Development
Nativists
Behaviorists
Interactionist
Genie
Genie’s case is both intriguing and sad. Intriguing because it is one that brings about a myriad of question relative to psychology and language development in particular. At the same time, it is sad, given the amount of abuse that the girl went through before and after she was discovered. Having been kept in isolation for more than 13 years, with abusive parents and going through a series of foster homes that were all cruel to her, is a sad story and one that deserves to be evaluated at very intense levels (Miller, 2012).
Behaviorists
According to the behaviorists, language development is largely a process that is associated with reinforcements from the environment. The toddlers respond to the stimuli that is in their environment and certain behaviors develop (Miller, 2012). Where the children continue to interact with the certain reinforcement, they learn about how to respond with appropriate behaviors and responses. It is mostly the positive reinforcement that develop the language in toddlers. Ideally, the toddlers learn how...