Viernes, Alysa S.

(BAELS1A)
ELS102 Reflection Paper
To start, I do not pity them. What I have is empathy for the children who have turned to
a life of pain; the feral children. Based on what I watched in the final part of the video,
we ought to be filled with amazement rather than pity. It is remarkable how resilient they
were to make it through all of those traumatic situations and how willing they were to
continue to interact with people, get knowledge from them, and possibly trust them.
People seem to believe that feral is synonymous with the wild. On the other hand, while
providing a counterpoint, I frequently find myself in the middle of a heated debate on
which term, "feral" or "wild," is more appropriately descriptive of the situation. The term
"feral" almost generally refers to a quasi-kind of a domestic animal that has escaped its
confinement and is now living in the wild. This is because feral animals tend to behave
more like wild animals. We seldom use the word "tame" when referring to a native plant
or animal living in a natural setting; instead, we use the phrase "wild."

I am mixed emotions seeing children go through those kinds of experiences. Because

they were all born healthy and just because of their parents' negligence, they lived life
as if they were animals. Some were isolated by themselves, some were left alone with
dogs as their companion, and some were found in a jungle.

Oxana Malaya produces a sound like a dog. I admit I skipped parts when she was
barking and acting like a dog because I could not watch it. My heart is too fragile for
stories like this. It makes me feel agitated towards the parents because it is solely their
fault. It made me also believe that dogs are man's best friend. I searched for Oxana,
and I have read that Malaya is currently 34 and lives at a mental health facility, where
other residents look after her. Even though she spends much time caring for the farm
animals, she does not spend much time with her dog. Oxana regained her ability to talk
after being abandoned, thanks to her childlike speech pattern.

Meanwhile, the wild boy of Aveyron, a little boy who was discovered in an isolated part
of the woods in the south of France in the year 1800, is considered to be one of the
most famous cases of a wild child. Dr. Itard made numerous attempts to teach the
young boy, whom he eventually called Victor, language and social skills, but the child
never acquired more than two words. Numerous unsuccessful attempts were made to
teach a language and various social skills. There is a possibility that the crucial period
hypothesis is not entirely to blame for these failures. It is possible that the children's
incapacity to learn a language was partly caused by the circumstances surrounding
their abandonment and any other painful experiences they have had.
Following that is the case of Gua and Viki. In 1933, they experimented with a form of
cross-fostering or cross-nurturing by raising their (Catherine and Keith Hayes) own kid
and a female chimpanzee named Gua. Gua never generated any words that could be
understood, and she only understood a handful.

Catherine and Keith Hayes sought to teach a chimpanzee named Viki how to speak by
rearing and educating her as a child. After six years, Viki could only produce four words
with her lips, and they were poorly articulated versions of mama, papa, up, and cup.
She could only make a hoarse sound that the Hayes family could recognize. These
investigations demonstrate that chimps do not possess vocal tracts that are physically
Viernes, Alysa S. (BAELS1A)
ELS102 Reflection Paper
suited to creating a speech, and this distinction may account for why they have not
made any progress in this area.
On the other hand, Genie Wiley's story is also heartbreaking. Genie was a child who
seemed normal when she was born, but she had trouble speaking since she was 20
months old. She was locked in a small room by herself, and the only time she saw other
people was when her mother brought her food. Both his brother and father h barked at
her like dogs. Her father cannot stand noise, so when she makes one, she is punished
for it. When the LAPD found Genie, she was almost 14 years old, right before the end of
the critical period. Genie was trained to learn how to speak a few different languages.
She learned during training that she did not use any questions or grammatical words
and made negatives by putting them at the beginning of sentences. She also did not
learn how to use inflectional morphology, which is word endings to show plurals and
verb tenses, the ability to change active to passive constructions, and the use of
auxiliary verbs. Based on my research, she heard speech sounds better with her left ear
and right hemisphere. Genie's case shows that it is possible to learn a language after
the critical period, with syntax playing a more important role. After the critical period, it
may be hard to learn as much language as before. Like in every other case, not much is
known about Genie's language problems and other hardships outside her confinement.

Lastly, in 1999, a young boy named Edik was found in Mirny, Ukraine. When he was
found, Edik was a 4-year-old boy. Edik was living by himself in a run-down apartment.
He lived in an apartment with wild dogs, and some say he had at least three dogs with
him at any given time. Researchers think that the symbiotic relationship between
humans and animals strengthened the bond and led to the pack mentality wherein the
dogs learned that the boy would always give them food, no matter how rarely. This
meant they did not have to go hunting. In exchange, the dogs cared for and spent time
with the boy.

It brings me to the question; are we a product of our genes? or are we a product of our
experience? Well, because of the way that genes respond to the various stimuli in their
environment, humans are essentially the product of their genetic makeup and their
surroundings. Because our genes and environments both have a role in who we are as
individuals, it is impossible to arrive at this conclusion in an uncomplicated way.