"Genie: A Scientific tragedy"
Running Head: "Genie: A Scientific tragedy"
"Genie: A Scientific tragedy":
Discussion of Development Stages
Writer’s Name
Course Name, Semester No, Class Level
Supervisor Name
July 2, 2009
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"Genie: A Scientific tragedy"
Cognitive Theory of Development
Learning mechanism consists of diversifying factors that builds the foundation for
development in neurotypical human being. Social environment and the upbringing process of
child create the mental pattern of individual which governs the functionality of the person
how he grows or behaves. There is confirmation from scientist on the effect of abuse and
neglect on the cognitive ability as it affects the psychosocial and language understanding of
the victimized population. Evolution of mind as well as body is essential in survival and
blossoming of human beings to cope with the surrounding and achieve physical or mental
feats. Piaget formalizes this concept in theory of development stages spanning across the life.
Mind should augment its range through developing cognitive, psychological, social and
emotional capability to flow gracefully in perpetual changing dimensions of social dynamics.
Swiss philosopher Jean Piaget defines the stage of infants up to the age of two years as
sensorimotor stage where child absorbs the information through using five senses of seeing,
hearing, tasting, touching and smelling. Brain is in early stage of development without fully
established connection of neural networks. So, the brain records all the messages of
surrounding through impression collected by senses.
In the second stage of development known as preoperational stage, the ability to
communicate through the application of language grows in the child still he lacks the
understanding of the mental processes concerned with intricacies of language. This duration
of stage is from 2 to 7 years. The development of mental skill happens in the concrete
operational stage where he starts gaining insight into the logic of events. Their interpretation
ability grows from 6 to 11 years of age when he develops his own understanding of the world
and how to apply different logic in context of different events. Children go through phases of
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psychosocial development to enjoy games, mathematics and cultural events (Blair-Broeker,
Charles T., and Randal M. Ernst, 2003).
Final stage of cognitive development is termed as formal operational stage which begins
from the age of 12 years where abstraction and strategic formulation becomes possible for
adolescents in application of solving the hypothetical problems. They start developing
thinking outside the confined zone as well as playing complex games like chess and other
computer skills. Impact of education and inferential operation is visible at this stage.
Child Abuse and Genie’s Case
Initial phase of life creates basic circuitry for emotional and social functioning. The
neurobiological foundations of emotional and social processes are important in early
childhood. The orbitofrontal region is central for a number of processes such as emotion
regulation, empathy, and autobiographical memory. Its development is governed by
experience felt in interpersonal communication during the early years of life. This
collaborative and attuned communication with adult and primary caregiver can regulate the
child’s positive and negative emotional states. These interactions are essential in growth of
the infant’s developing emotional and social brain.
Child abuse is the one of focal point for social researcher in establishing the link between
psychosocial and language/speech development with respect to the impact of punishment,
physical, mental or emotional abuse. Earlier it was assumed that if childhood trauma is not
too severe, then its effects can be mitigated in the later stage of human growth. This theory
has little acceptance in modern psychology.
The case of Genie is the example of human degradation in parental influence on the child
where abuse has taken extreme measures. She was also known as “Wild Child” in the circle
of psychological researchers. She was of weight 59 pounds and 54 inches tall when she was
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recovered from Temple City, California home in November, 1970 although her age was
around 13 years. There was several physical limitations in her movements along with basic
operations of daily existence was accomplished with much difficulty. She was lacking in
mental skills as her vocabulary was limited to phrases like “Stopit!” and “Nomore!” to
protect herself from punishment.
There was not enough research accomplished at the time of case in the field of linguistics
where ability of language and speech understanding and critical age can be established with
enough observation in USA. The disapproval of society to isolate the kid for research purpose
was major factor in pursuing such kind of experiment. The pathetic situation of Genie has
provided the social scientist long awaited opportunities to test the hypothesis of relation
between cognitive development and period of age.
Genie was grown up in extremely limiting condition where she has little opportunity of free
movement as her physical tie up with potty chair allows only small part of body like finger,
toes, and feet to move. She was also restricted in mental stimulation. Clark Wiley, her
biological father, was allergic to noise which impaired the ability of Genie in auditory
function. Whenever she creates noise for attracting attention, she was severely beaten by her
father with a wooden stick which worked as negative reinforcement. Her silent sitting in the
corner of the room where she has no tactile stimulation except few items of daily use like
raincoats, buckets etc , also curbed her ability to do any mental operation in comparison to
children of same age group. (Rhymer, 17-19).
Genie’s brain does not have proper nutrition and nurturing in the absence of adequate
stimulation which was reflected in her highly undeveloped structure of neurological circuit. If
brain is healthy, its neural system has all the synaptic connections in the form network
between neurons. Pruning of brain happens around the age of four which depends on the
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"Genie: A Scientific tragedy"
utility of different parts as studied in phrenology. The development of brain is affected by
amount of nourishment and stimulation provided to it. The connection between neurons along
with modus operandi of brain deteriorates in the absence of necessary stimulation.
(Source: http://www.earlyhomelearning.org.uk/brainDevelopment )
Above image of brain scan for child of 3 years age reflects the structural development in the
case of normal and extremely neglected kid. There is definite gap in the development of brain
in these two cases as neurotypical child with normal stimulation has better structure of brain
which can handle many operations. The atrophied brain of neglected child as reflected in
black patches is dysfunctional. There are remote chances of repairing the atrophied brain in
enriched environment to make it functional again. The left hemisphere of Genie’s brain was
damaged to such an extent that she was not in the condition to learn the syntax, grammar and
sentence formation of language to communicate freely for expressing her feelings. However,
she was able to get across few points through her limited use of vocabulary.
Genie has shown significant progress in development of her psychological ability although
she has not responded fairly well in linguistic stimulation. Her initial reaction to surroundings
was not very positive as it takes time to adopt with new stimuli which was different from
torturous experience of confinement. As mentioned in the book that “she treated everything,
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including people, as objects” (Rymer, 45). Her body language and facial expression varied in
accordance with the kind of emotions she was passing through. She used to internalize the
anger to save herself from scathe of others as her initial primary caregivers have not
responded in very positive ways to her emotions. She used to indulge in self-inflicted harmful
behaviors while throwing tantrums in continuance of old coping mechanism. Sometimes she
urinates, scratch different parts of body or other unusual behaviors to express her anguish
(Rhyme, 41). She could not differentiate between living beings and other non-living objects.
As reflected in following passage of the book:
“‘She didn’t integrate tactile and visual information. Even the bunny walk [referring to the
way she walked with her arms bent at the elbow, hands held in front of her body] – hands in
front. It’s what we call blindism. It’s what people do when they do not entirely believe their
eyes” (Rymer, 45).
Social isolation from contemporary groups and other human beings result in sensory
deprivation as in the case of Genie’s condition. However, Genie had developed sense of
belongingness while going through treatment and observation. She started forming
relationship with scientist, many of hospital staff, and cooks. She was communicating to
members to express her needs. She has increased sense of identity in positive surrounding
which she carried even after leaving the hospital.
Genie’s new sense of better life had not lasted long enough. Her mother misinterpreted the
intentions of doctors that they are causing more harms to Genie than doing any benefits. She
has taken control of Genie and put her into home of disabled adult. It had not gone well for
Genie as she regressed and retraced old habits of self-destructive behavior when she was in
torturous environment of abusive father. Now a day, she has been taken to secret
rehabilitation where she is protected from intervention of external agency or visitors.
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"Genie: A Scientific tragedy"
Conclusion
The tragedy of Genie lies in her inability to choose her destiny. She has no choice of
choosing right parents in the lottery of life which makes her completely handicapped to
function normally in the society. There are many autistic cases like Genie who is deprived of
emotional support and parental guidance to develop their academic and social skills. They
don’t get the much needed stimulation at right age to enhance their cognitive ability. It
becomes impossible to learn these linguistic skills after missing the critical period. Still they
are human. Aren’t they? We have to explore these questions more deeply to accommodate
underprivileged children.
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References
Bibliography
Rymer, Russ. Genie: A Scientific Tragedy. New York City, NY: Harper Perennial, 1994.
Bishop, Dorothy, and Kay Mogford. Language Development in Exceptional Circumstances.
N.p.: Psychology Press, 1993.
Blair-Broeker, Charles T., and Randal M. Ernst. Thinking about Psychology: The Science of
Mind and Behavior. New York City: Worth Publishers, 2003.
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