WEBVTT 00:00:00.070 --> 00:00:01.933 (Music) 00:00:01.933 --> 00:00:04.602 Children are precious to human kind. 00:00:05.682 --> 00:00:08.942 We satisfy our innate desire to nurture 00:00:08.942 --> 00:00:12.103 and carry on our bloodline through our progeny. 00:00:12.683 --> 00:00:17.103 Our children, in turn, rely on us for love and survival. 00:00:18.353 --> 00:00:22.143 What happens to a child that's been abandoned by all who are charged 00:00:22.143 --> 00:00:26.873 with protecting him and left to fend for himself in the wild. 00:00:28.493 --> 00:00:33.485 Or when a girl grows up in solitary confinement in her own family's home 00:00:33.905 --> 00:00:36.514 never knowing love or social interaction. 00:00:36.514 --> 00:00:38.454 (Piano music) 00:00:38.454 --> 00:00:41.323 Since the earliest of times, such stories 00:00:41.323 --> 00:00:44.623 were thought to be nothing more than myths. 00:00:44.623 --> 00:00:48.941 Could there be any truth to the lore of feral children? 00:00:48.941 --> 00:00:55.026 (Ire music) 00:00:55.026 --> 00:00:58.702 The word "feral" means wild or undomesticated. 00:00:58.702 --> 00:01:02.203 It brings to mind the myth of Romulus, the founder of Rome, 00:01:02.203 --> 00:01:06.110 and his twin brother Remus, who were raised by a wolf. 00:01:06.110 --> 00:01:10.583 Or that of Tarzan, who lived among animals in the wild. 00:01:10.583 --> 00:01:15.414 For centuries, feral children have posed questions that go to the very heart 00:01:15.414 --> 00:01:17.822 of what it is to be human. 00:01:17.822 --> 00:01:24.486 One of the central questions in all of science that has to do with humans 00:01:24.486 --> 00:01:30.896 is are we a product of our genes or are we a product of our experience. 00:01:30.896 --> 00:01:33.142 The old nature, nurture issue. 00:01:33.142 --> 00:01:38.924 Feral children tap into this because they are the natural experiment 00:01:38.924 --> 00:01:41.684 that we're not allowed to carry out. 00:01:41.684 --> 00:01:47.923 They are the children who go through extraordinary circumstances at 00:01:47.923 --> 00:01:51.342 which no one could naturally create. 00:01:52.192 --> 00:01:56.632 But the fascination, I think, actually originates in these sort of primal ideas 00:01:56.632 --> 00:02:00.154 about the difference between humans and animals. 00:02:01.524 --> 00:02:04.902 Part of being a human is being brought up by humans. 00:02:04.902 --> 00:02:09.492 If you're not brought up by humans are you completely human? 00:02:09.492 --> 00:02:14.762 And I think in some of these cases that's the issue that we're dealing with. 00:02:14.762 --> 00:02:16.965 (bark, bark, bark, bark) 00:02:18.105 --> 00:02:19.354 (bark, bark, bark) 00:02:19.354 --> 00:02:21.952 One of the most extraordinary cases ever 00:02:21.952 --> 00:02:24.796 has recently come to light in the Ukraine. 00:02:24.796 --> 00:02:29.055 Oxana Malaya was born in November 1983. 00:02:29.055 --> 00:02:32.844 According to medical records, she was a healthy child. 00:02:33.634 --> 00:02:37.903 So, how did Oxana become more like a dog than a human being? 00:02:40.473 --> 00:02:43.674 Her parents were alcoholics, and one night, 00:02:43.674 --> 00:02:47.103 too drunk to care, they left Oxana outside. 00:02:49.893 --> 00:02:53.443 Looking for warmth, the three year old crawled into the farm kennel 00:02:53.443 --> 00:02:58.032 and curled up with the mongrel dog that probably saved her life. 00:02:59.632 --> 00:03:01.212 (Bark, growl) 00:03:01.212 --> 00:03:03.703 But while the dog helped her survive, 00:03:03.703 --> 00:03:06.944 her time in the kennel also had awful consequences. 00:03:06.944 --> 00:03:08.973 (Arf, Arf, growl) 00:03:08.973 --> 00:03:13.817 For the next five years, she would spend her life living as a dog. 00:03:14.452 --> 00:03:20.610 (Bark, bark bark, growl) 00:03:20.610 --> 00:03:22.010 (Howling) 00:03:22.015 --> 00:03:24.380 (drum music) 00:03:24.380 --> 00:03:27.030 (Speaking Ukrainian) 00:03:27.030 --> 00:03:30.131 She was more like a little dog then a human child. 00:03:30.131 --> 00:03:33.231 First of all she couldn't speak, or she could hardly speak. 00:03:33.231 --> 00:03:35.610 And actually the purpose of speaking, 00:03:35.610 --> 00:03:38.241 well she didn't think it was necessary to speak at all. 00:03:38.241 --> 00:03:46.171 (Speaking Ukrainian) 00:03:46.171 --> 00:03:49.422 Children can copy the habits of the creatures around them 00:03:49.422 --> 00:03:53.091 if those creatures are human beings they become like human beings 00:03:53.091 --> 00:03:55.780 but, as you know, she was surrounded by dogs. 00:03:55.780 --> 00:03:58.272 So she became more like a dog than a human being. 00:03:58.272 --> 00:04:08.501 (Water running noise) 00:04:08.501 --> 00:04:12.402 But surely the story of Oxana is a rarity, 00:04:12.402 --> 00:04:17.171 the product of alcoholic parents in a poor and depressed part of the world. 00:04:17.171 --> 00:04:19.881 Incredibly, it would seem not. 00:04:20.371 --> 00:04:24.283 Throughout history, children have been abandoned by their parents. 00:04:24.283 --> 00:04:27.319 Most die quickly, but some, the survivors, 00:04:27.319 --> 00:04:30.782 have resorted to extraordinary means to stay alive. 00:04:32.402 --> 00:04:36.339 How they have survived and who they become are questions that have long 00:04:36.339 --> 00:04:39.893 fascinated scientists, but understanding these children 00:04:39.893 --> 00:04:42.872 has been a slow and difficult process. 00:04:44.092 --> 00:04:46.562 A very very good clinicians and researchers 00:04:46.562 --> 00:04:50.420 have, with the tools that they had in their day and age, 00:04:50.420 --> 00:04:53.841 they've tried to understand what happened but because 00:04:53.841 --> 00:05:00.320 it's such a complex set of phenomenon, our understanding has been limited, 00:05:00.320 --> 00:05:04.319 and it's incrementally, from generation to generation to generation, 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:06.243 we've had better tools to better 00:05:06.243 --> 00:05:08.613 understand what happens to these children. 00:05:08.613 --> 00:05:13.502 The first scientifically documented case occurred in 1800 in France. 00:05:13.782 --> 00:05:17.870 It would send shock waves throughout civilized Europe. 00:05:17.870 --> 00:05:28.802 (music) 00:05:28.802 --> 00:05:32.500 The scientific study of feral children began in the most 00:05:32.500 --> 00:05:35.063 improbable of circumstances. 00:05:37.323 --> 00:05:40.122 On a cloudy afternoon in southwest France, 00:05:40.122 --> 00:05:43.211 two hunters were out in the woods looking for deer. 00:05:43.211 --> 00:05:46.881 It had been a long day and they hadn't caught anything, 00:05:46.881 --> 00:05:49.641 but their luck was about to change. 00:05:50.182 --> 00:05:58.621 (ire noises) 00:05:58.621 --> 00:06:01.160 (tribal drums) 00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:05.592 For years, scared villagers had talked of a strange wild child 00:06:05.592 --> 00:06:07.161 that lurked in the forest. 00:06:07.161 --> 00:06:11.421 (bark, bark, bark, bark, bark) 00:06:11.421 --> 00:06:15.332 He had been caught twice before but had always managed to escape. 00:06:15.332 --> 00:06:18.672 (bark, bark bark) 00:06:18.672 --> 00:06:21.533 This time, however, he wouldn't get away. 00:06:21.533 --> 00:06:32.771 (bark, bark, bark) 00:06:32.771 --> 00:06:35.042 News of the capture spread fast. 00:06:35.042 --> 00:06:39.412 In Paris, one young doctor, Jean Itard, was especially interested. 00:06:39.412 --> 00:06:43.691 (music) 00:06:43.691 --> 00:06:45.661 The boy was brought to Paris. 00:06:45.661 --> 00:06:47.681 Most of the city's medical professionals 00:06:47.681 --> 00:06:52.562 quickly decided that the boy, now called Victor, was nothing more than an idiot. 00:06:53.162 --> 00:06:55.752 But something about him captivated Itard. 00:06:56.052 --> 00:06:59.260 The first thing which is truly remarkable about Itard, 00:06:59.260 --> 00:07:04.623 is his extremely scientific approach to reporting what he did. 00:07:05.183 --> 00:07:10.355 He gives a wonderful wealth of detail about the child, 00:07:10.355 --> 00:07:13.803 what the child did, when he tried certain things. 00:07:13.803 --> 00:07:18.572 So he is very clearly linked into 00:07:18.572 --> 00:07:21.582 a tradition which we're still involved with now. 00:07:21.742 --> 00:07:22.953 (clap, clap) 00:07:22.953 --> 00:07:27.092 The modern scientific study of feral children had begun. 00:07:27.092 --> 00:07:31.082 For Itard there were two tests of what it meant to be human, 00:07:31.082 --> 00:07:34.793 the ability to feel empathy and to use language. 00:07:34.793 --> 00:07:39.583 Victor could do neither, and so was, in Itard's eyes scarcely human. 00:07:39.583 --> 00:07:44.152 (music) 00:07:44.152 --> 00:07:45.522 No, Victor no alet. 00:07:45.522 --> 00:07:47.812 At first, he was wild and hard to control. 00:07:47.812 --> 00:07:52.113 But slowly, Dr. Itard and his housekeeper, Madame Guérin 00:07:52.113 --> 00:07:54.053 started making progress. 00:07:55.053 --> 00:07:58.632 Itard's belief in love and kindness seemed to be working. 00:07:58.632 --> 00:08:02.992 (music) 00:08:02.992 --> 00:08:06.783 But after his years alone in the woods, Itard knew that Victor 00:08:06.783 --> 00:08:09.113 still craved for the wild. 00:08:10.883 --> 00:08:13.084 Every day they would walk together, 00:08:13.084 --> 00:08:16.351 and with every day, Victor became less wild. 00:08:16.351 --> 00:08:19.711 (music) 00:08:19.711 --> 00:08:22.903 And eventually, Madame Guérin was able to take over 00:08:22.903 --> 00:08:25.473 what were, for Victor, some of his happiest times. 00:08:25.473 --> 00:08:27.952 (music) 00:08:27.952 --> 00:08:30.343 He loved nature, but he also seemed to be showing 00:08:30.343 --> 00:08:32.732 real feelings for the people around him. 00:08:33.612 --> 00:08:40.583 I think that Jean Itard understood the importance of parental love 00:08:40.583 --> 00:08:47.707 and so, he put Victor in a situation where he had in essence a um, 00:08:47.707 --> 00:08:52.922 substitute mother, Madame Guérin and she played the role of mother. 00:08:52.922 --> 00:08:57.933 She understood the importance of constant care 00:08:57.933 --> 00:09:03.683 and understood intuitively how important it is to touch people. 00:09:03.683 --> 00:09:06.983 (music) 00:09:06.983 --> 00:09:10.672 And in the months that followed, there was even more progress. 00:09:12.342 --> 00:09:16.734 Victor enjoyed helping Madame Guérin and had learned to lay the table. 00:09:16.734 --> 00:09:21.133 (flute music) 00:09:21.133 --> 00:09:25.814 But one lunch time he was laying the table as usual when Madame Guérin 00:09:25.814 --> 00:09:27.323 started crying. 00:09:29.353 --> 00:09:31.804 Her husband had recently died. 00:09:32.274 --> 00:09:35.521 Incredibly, Victor seemed to understand. 00:09:38.271 --> 00:09:42.031 Quietly, he simply removed the place setting. 00:09:42.046 --> 00:09:48.226 (flute music) 00:09:48.231 --> 00:09:51.892 This was the breakthrough Itard had been waiting for. 00:09:51.892 --> 00:09:56.883 Victor seemed to be showing real empathy and understanding at last. 00:09:56.883 --> 00:10:06.693 (music) 00:10:06.693 --> 00:10:11.362 By putting away, um, the place he laid, he was showing that he could empathize 00:10:11.362 --> 00:10:12.843 with Madame Guérin. 00:10:12.843 --> 00:10:15.121 He realized that he'd made a mistake. 00:10:15.121 --> 00:10:19.673 That his mistake had hurt her and I think in by doing that, 00:10:19.673 --> 00:10:23.463 he was showing his ability to put himself in a position of another human being, 00:10:23.463 --> 00:10:25.964 something which, when he was first brought to Paris, 00:10:25.964 --> 00:10:27.471 would have seemed impossible. 00:10:28.181 --> 00:10:31.281 Victor had passed the first of Itard's tests. 00:10:31.281 --> 00:10:35.432 Nervous but excited, Itard realized that it was now or never. 00:10:35.432 --> 00:10:38.853 It was time for Victor to learn to talk. 00:10:38.853 --> 00:10:43.571 (music) 00:10:43.571 --> 00:10:48.921 But before he could talk, Itard wanted to know that Victor could recognize sounds. 00:10:48.921 --> 00:10:52.082 To test this, he blindfolded him and gave him a drum and a bell. 00:10:52.082 --> 00:10:55.082 (music) 00:10:55.082 --> 00:10:58.854 It was a game Victor loved and understood immediately. 00:10:58.854 --> 00:11:02.612 For Itard, this was just the start he had wanted. 00:11:02.612 --> 00:11:06.332 Did his mean that Victor would finally be able to master language? 00:11:06.332 --> 00:11:11.642 (drum and bell sounds) 00:11:12.292 --> 00:11:17.093 A drum is one thing, but language is infinitely more complex. 00:11:17.093 --> 00:11:20.632 Before he would be able to talk, Itard knew that Victor would have to 00:11:20.632 --> 00:11:22.782 master his vowel sounds, 00:11:22.782 --> 00:11:25.021 the building blocks of all language. 00:11:25.021 --> 00:11:25.722 O 00:11:26.592 --> 00:11:28.873 Victor (something in French) 00:11:30.163 --> 00:11:31.020 Victor. 00:11:31.490 --> 00:11:34.442 But this time, Victor was at a complete loss. 00:11:34.442 --> 00:11:37.224 To him, it was all nothing more than a game. 00:11:37.344 --> 00:11:38.344 Ah, 00:11:40.494 --> 00:11:44.504 Itard could see his dreams for Victor disappearing before his eyes, 00:11:44.504 --> 00:11:48.252 and for the first time ever, lost his temper with the boy. 00:11:48.252 --> 00:11:50.533 Victor no (slap sound) 00:11:50.533 --> 00:11:53.904 (boy crying) 00:11:53.904 --> 00:11:58.112 But it was no good, Itard realized that Victor just couldn't make sense 00:11:58.112 --> 00:12:00.892 of the sounds that other children take for granted. 00:12:00.892 --> 00:12:03.442 (music) 00:12:03.442 --> 00:12:06.903 Without this, how could he ever be expected to talk? 00:12:08.643 --> 00:12:11.843 Itard felt that, to be a human being in the fullest possible sense, 00:12:11.843 --> 00:12:14.823 you had to be sociable, you had to be language using, 00:12:14.823 --> 00:12:19.100 had to be measured, orderly, artificial, and when he realized 00:12:19.100 --> 00:12:23.501 that Victor was unable to obtain that, I think he loses interest 00:12:23.501 --> 00:12:26.754 and um, really leaves him to his own devices. 00:12:26.754 --> 00:12:31.082 For the next 20 years, Victor would live with Madame Guérin. 00:12:31.082 --> 00:12:35.294 Happy, but abandoned by the man who had tried so hard to save him. 00:12:35.294 --> 00:12:39.901 With Victor, Itard had shown that it possible to bring a feral child 00:12:39.901 --> 00:12:45.122 back into society, but with language, the ultimate test, he had failed. 00:12:45.122 --> 00:12:49.673 Despite this, interest in feral children continued unabated. 00:12:51.223 --> 00:12:56.772 In 1828, a young boy, Casper Hauser, was found lost and alone 00:12:56.772 --> 00:12:57.653 in Germany. 00:12:58.993 --> 00:13:02.060 His background as much of a mystery as Victor's. 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:06.673 And as the century wore on, more reports were appearing from distant corners 00:13:06.673 --> 00:13:07.973 of the globe. 00:13:07.973 --> 00:13:10.423 From India, in particular, came a series 00:13:10.423 --> 00:13:13.423 of stories about children living with wolves. 00:13:13.423 --> 00:13:17.992 Distant and unproven, to scientists they seemed little more than myth. 00:13:17.992 --> 00:13:21.222 Then, in 1930, a properly documented case 00:13:21.222 --> 00:13:24.814 of two girls living with a wolf pack came to light. 00:13:24.814 --> 00:13:27.612 American scientists were particularly interested, 00:13:27.612 --> 00:13:32.431 but before the girls could get to the United States, both died of fever. 00:13:34.841 --> 00:13:37.433 One of the scientists who had been waiting to see them 00:13:37.433 --> 00:13:40.563 was primatologist Winthrop Kellogg. 00:13:40.563 --> 00:13:43.244 Despite this setback, he was determined to prove 00:13:43.244 --> 00:13:47.021 that nurture was the dominant influence in child development. 00:13:48.651 --> 00:13:51.994 Kellogg knew that the perfect way to prove his theory was to um, 00:13:51.994 --> 00:13:53.861 engineer a feral child . 00:13:53.861 --> 00:13:57.294 To bring to get a baby, put them among wolves and to see what happened. 00:13:57.294 --> 00:13:59.622 Clearly this is the one experiment he couldn't do, 00:13:59.622 --> 00:14:01.321 this was the forbidden experiment. 00:14:01.321 --> 00:14:03.834 So what he decided to do was the next best thing, 00:14:03.834 --> 00:14:06.724 which was to reverse that forbidden experiment 00:14:06.724 --> 00:14:09.642 and to bring an ape into human family. 00:14:10.002 --> 00:14:12.422 For the next year, the chimpanzee Gua, 00:14:12.422 --> 00:14:15.463 would spend every day with Kellogg's young son Donald. 00:14:16.643 --> 00:14:21.314 As Kellogg had predicted, Gua could learn many human characteristics, 00:14:21.314 --> 00:14:24.306 but the experiment had unforeseen consequences. 00:14:24.696 --> 00:14:28.112 Kellogg really thought of this as an experiment on the chimpanzee. 00:14:28.112 --> 00:14:31.494 In actual fact, it became equally an experiment on his son. 00:14:31.494 --> 00:14:34.279 Particularly in the way in which his son was picking up, 00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:36.179 or not picking up, language. 00:14:36.179 --> 00:14:38.123 Rather than learning words, 00:14:38.123 --> 00:14:41.573 Donald was learning the barks and yelps of a chimpanzee. 00:14:41.573 --> 00:14:44.974 Horrified, Kellogg called off the experiment. 00:14:44.974 --> 00:14:49.632 Almost by accident, Kellogg had shown the vulnerability of early childhood. 00:14:49.632 --> 00:14:52.163 How the smallest changes in environment 00:14:52.163 --> 00:14:55.163 can have unforeseen and long lasting effects. 00:14:55.163 --> 00:14:58.792 It was a subject that continued to intrigue scientists. 00:14:59.772 --> 00:15:03.212 In the 1960s, American psychologist Harry Harlow 00:15:03.212 --> 00:15:05.444 continued where Kellogg had left off. 00:15:07.494 --> 00:15:10.664 Harlow's work was really seminal in this entire field 00:15:10.664 --> 00:15:14.873 because he showed the crucial importance of the caregiving relationship 00:15:14.873 --> 00:15:19.224 between a mother and an infant and how the physical stimulation, 00:15:19.224 --> 00:15:23.112 literally the physical contact with the caregiver, 00:15:23.112 --> 00:15:26.834 has profound impact on healthy development. 00:15:27.724 --> 00:15:31.804 At birth, Harlow took baby monkeys from their mothers. 00:15:31.804 --> 00:15:35.732 They were then given a choice between a cold wire monkey with milk 00:15:35.732 --> 00:15:38.113 or a soft warm monkey without. 00:15:38.763 --> 00:15:43.104 Amazingly, they chose the more comforting figure every time. 00:15:44.664 --> 00:15:47.802 And socially, the effects were devastating. 00:15:47.802 --> 00:15:51.431 Raised in isolation, without any love or encouragement, 00:15:51.431 --> 00:15:54.384 these young monkeys were scared and confused. 00:15:54.384 --> 00:15:56.312 Harlow couldn't explain it, 00:15:56.312 --> 00:16:00.583 but something about this early isolation had damaged them for life. 00:16:03.103 --> 00:16:04.993 But these were monkeys. 00:16:04.993 --> 00:16:08.033 Would the same be true for a human child? 00:16:08.033 --> 00:16:12.643 It would be another 20 years before scientists had a chance to find out, 00:16:12.643 --> 00:16:17.683 and when they did, it would be in the busiest, most urban setting imaginable. 00:16:18.493 --> 00:16:20.951 Officials in the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia 00:16:20.951 --> 00:16:23.482 have taken custody of a 13-year-old girl, 00:16:23.482 --> 00:16:26.422 and they say was kept in such isolation by her parents 00:16:26.422 --> 00:16:28.558 that she never even learned to talk. 00:16:28.558 --> 00:16:30.663 The girl still wore diapers and was uttering 00:16:30.663 --> 00:16:34.752 infantile noises when a social worker discovered the case two weeks ago. 00:16:34.752 --> 00:16:38.403 The authorities are hoping she still may have a normal learning capacity. 00:16:39.633 --> 00:16:41.887 Among the first to see the child was 00:16:41.887 --> 00:16:44.814 Temple City detective Sergeant Frank Linley. 00:16:44.814 --> 00:16:52.294 (Ire music) 00:16:52.294 --> 00:16:56.692 I already knew that the child was 13 1/2 years old 00:16:56.892 --> 00:17:00.495 and I took one look at her and she wasn't much bigger 00:17:00.495 --> 00:17:06.371 than my daughter Beverly, who had just turned seven about three months earlier, 00:17:06.371 --> 00:17:10.562 and I really had a hard time conceiving of the idea 00:17:10.562 --> 00:17:12.892 that the child was the age that she was. 00:17:13.932 --> 00:17:17.757 The child obviously had been severely mistreated. 00:17:17.757 --> 00:17:20.190 After she was still in diapers, couldn't walk, 00:17:20.190 --> 00:17:22.952 she had no verbal skills at all at that point. 00:17:22.952 --> 00:17:26.732 (Ire music) 00:17:26.732 --> 00:17:31.893 The last time I was on this street was probably 30 years ago. 00:17:33.983 --> 00:17:35.253 Yup, there it is. 00:17:36.173 --> 00:17:39.519 Hasn't changed much, the backyard looks the same, 00:17:39.519 --> 00:17:41.772 it's all weeds and dead grass. 00:17:43.872 --> 00:17:46.694 Looks the same as it did in 1970. 00:17:48.084 --> 00:17:50.443 The house belonged to Clark Wiley. 00:17:50.443 --> 00:17:52.952 A loner, Clark had turned his back on the world 00:17:52.952 --> 00:17:55.823 after his mother had been killed in a hit and run accident. 00:17:56.913 --> 00:18:01.463 After the accident, things in the Wiley house would never be the same again. 00:18:01.463 --> 00:18:05.201 (ire piano music) 00:18:05.201 --> 00:18:07.743 The house was completely dark, 00:18:07.743 --> 00:18:10.041 all the blinds were drawn, 00:18:10.041 --> 00:18:11.781 and there were no toys, 00:18:11.781 --> 00:18:14.813 no clothes, nothing that would ever indicate 00:18:14.813 --> 00:18:18.402 to you that a child of any age lived there. 00:18:18.402 --> 00:18:22.422 (Ire music) 00:18:22.433 --> 00:18:27.032 The child's bedroom was back in this corner. 00:18:27.912 --> 00:18:29.393 That was the bedroom. 00:18:29.813 --> 00:18:33.932 The windows were covered to about three inches from the top, 00:18:33.932 --> 00:18:37.374 which were the only natural light that had ever come in there 00:18:37.374 --> 00:18:39.783 in all the time the child was in the bedroom. 00:18:40.613 --> 00:18:43.163 Entire furnishings in the bedroom consisted of a cage 00:18:43.163 --> 00:18:48.140 with a uh, pull-down chicken-wire lid 00:18:48.140 --> 00:18:52.805 and some type of piece of wire securing it when they closed it down. 00:18:52.805 --> 00:18:57.934 There was a potty chair with some kind of homemade strapping device. 00:18:57.934 --> 00:19:03.293 For 13 years Genie had spent her nights locked in bed. 00:19:03.293 --> 00:19:05.965 Her days, strapped to a potty chair. 00:19:05.965 --> 00:19:09.052 During that time, Clark had ordered his son John 00:19:09.052 --> 00:19:12.033 and wife Irene never to talk to her. 00:19:13.123 --> 00:19:18.722 In her darkened room, she had lead a life of near-total isolation. 00:19:20.782 --> 00:19:24.402 Even close neighbors were completely unaware of her presence. 00:19:25.522 --> 00:19:27.902 We came home from work and the police was here and 00:19:27.902 --> 00:19:29.354 they came to question us. 00:19:29.354 --> 00:19:32.353 That's when we found out you know, what happened 00:19:32.353 --> 00:19:34.503 and, you know, that they had a little girl. 00:19:35.823 --> 00:19:38.213 Nobody know, nobody knew before. 00:19:38.493 --> 00:19:41.002 And when we found out what happened, 00:19:41.002 --> 00:19:42.003 how she was treated. 00:19:42.003 --> 00:19:46.993 I mean, everybody was shocked and just unbelievable. 00:19:47.713 --> 00:19:51.915 For their whole marriage, Clark had imposed his will on Irene, 00:19:51.915 --> 00:19:55.431 and blind with cataracts, she had been too scared to resist. 00:19:55.431 --> 00:19:57.464 But one day, something broke. 00:19:57.994 --> 00:20:01.903 While Clark was out buying groceries, she seized her chance and fled. 00:20:01.903 --> 00:20:05.958 It was the first glimpse the world would have of Clark and Irene's dark secret. 00:20:06.528 --> 00:20:09.733 I met Clark and Irene at Temple City Sheriffs station, 00:20:09.733 --> 00:20:12.353 they were both under arrest at the time. 00:20:12.353 --> 00:20:17.082 When we interviewed Irene, she would make no mention of the family whatsoever, 00:20:17.082 --> 00:20:18.413 particularly the children. 00:20:18.913 --> 00:20:22.494 I attempted along with my partner to interview Clark. 00:20:22.494 --> 00:20:24.824 he refused to talk to us, he wouldn't say a word. 00:20:24.824 --> 00:20:28.454 He never even acknowledged that he understood what we were talking about. 00:20:28.454 --> 00:20:32.543 Unable to face the truth, Clark took matters into his own hands. 00:20:35.843 --> 00:20:39.414 This morning, the authorities reported that 70-year-old Clark Wiley 00:20:39.414 --> 00:20:41.985 shot and killed himself, just before he was 00:20:41.985 --> 00:20:45.795 to go to court and be arraigned for child abuse. 00:20:45.795 --> 00:20:49.242 After 13 years, Genie was at last free. 00:20:49.242 --> 00:20:53.532 And for scientists, she was just the case they had been waiting for. 00:20:55.782 --> 00:21:00.434 For 13 years, Genie had lived a life of complete isolation. 00:21:01.274 --> 00:21:05.514 Raised in a city bedroom, Genie was as much a feral child 00:21:05.514 --> 00:21:07.793 as if she had been brought up by wolves. 00:21:08.673 --> 00:21:11.952 At 13, she was the size of a six-year-old. 00:21:11.952 --> 00:21:15.277 Worst of all, she had never been taught to speak. 00:21:15.277 --> 00:21:18.681 The question now, could she ever learn? 00:21:18.681 --> 00:21:22.153 (Ire music) 00:21:22.153 --> 00:21:26.045 Genie's case was so scientifically important that the government 00:21:26.045 --> 00:21:30.484 funded a team of scientists to help answer the many questions she posed. 00:21:32.224 --> 00:21:34.142 (It's so good to see you.) 00:21:34.142 --> 00:21:37.474 Two of the scientists who would become especially important to Genie 00:21:37.474 --> 00:21:42.072 were child psychologist Kent and linguist Susan Curtis. 00:21:42.072 --> 00:21:44.563 (It's so wonderful to see you, thank god.) 00:21:44.983 --> 00:21:48.653 Neither had ever encountered a case as extreme as Genie's. 00:21:48.653 --> 00:21:54.723 (ire music) 00:21:54.723 --> 00:21:59.703 We looked at her as a as a newborn in a way, even though we know she hadn't. 00:21:59.703 --> 00:22:03.904 She came with 13 years of memories and experiences, not all of them wonderful, 00:22:03.904 --> 00:22:09.113 most of them not, I think, and so we felt we needed to start to expose her 00:22:09.113 --> 00:22:13.075 to what the world was going to be like for her outside the hospital bed. 00:22:13.655 --> 00:22:16.592 To Genie, everything was a new experience. 00:22:18.442 --> 00:22:21.123 We did what you would do with, with your own kids, 00:22:21.123 --> 00:22:23.625 if you were introducing them to the world. 00:22:23.625 --> 00:22:26.002 You'd take them out and hold them up and show them, 00:22:26.002 --> 00:22:29.451 and sort of judge from how they reacted to whether this was to much or not enough 00:22:29.451 --> 00:22:31.564 and you could move on and do the next thing. 00:22:31.564 --> 00:22:35.082 Genie was making amazing progress, as the experts looked on 00:22:35.082 --> 00:22:38.080 they realized that she might be the answer to the question that 00:22:38.080 --> 00:22:40.683 had troubled science for so long. 00:22:41.673 --> 00:22:46.784 So, we seized this wonderful opportunity that she provided us 00:22:46.784 --> 00:22:53.493 in as loving a way as we could, but using it to finally 00:22:53.493 --> 00:22:58.372 get our chance to address head on specific hypotheses 00:22:58.372 --> 00:23:02.052 and notions about human language and the human mind. 00:23:02.052 --> 00:23:03.572 (piano music) 00:23:03.572 --> 00:23:06.043 These hypotheses were based on the latest ideas 00:23:06.043 --> 00:23:09.043 about how children's brains developed. 00:23:09.043 --> 00:23:11.923 According to the theory, young children could 00:23:11.923 --> 00:23:16.162 only learn certain things at certain times, called critical periods. 00:23:16.462 --> 00:23:20.505 Language was one of these critical periods, and according to the theory, 00:23:20.505 --> 00:23:24.132 Genie, who was now a teenager, had missed her chance forever. 00:23:24.132 --> 00:23:26.673 (Piano music) 00:23:26.673 --> 00:23:30.442 But incredibly, Genie seemed to be proving the theory wrong. 00:23:30.442 --> 00:23:33.442 As this footage shows, Genie was blossoming. 00:23:33.442 --> 00:23:36.052 Not only was she delighted by the world around her, 00:23:36.052 --> 00:23:38.393 but she was learning the words for the new things 00:23:38.393 --> 00:23:39.543 she was seeing. 00:23:39.543 --> 00:23:43.824 [piano music] 00:23:43.824 --> 00:23:47.325 She was extremely interested in everything around her, 00:23:47.325 --> 00:23:50.035 she wanted to know the word for everything around her. 00:23:50.035 --> 00:23:53.414 She wanted to engage people all around her. 00:23:53.414 --> 00:23:56.324 She was not mentally deficient, her lights were on, 00:23:56.324 --> 00:23:59.484 and everyone who worked with her, from teachers, 00:23:59.484 --> 00:24:04.684 to therapists, to me, knew that she was not retarded. 00:24:04.684 --> 00:24:06.113 It was clear as day. 00:24:06.113 --> 00:24:08.174 [piano music] 00:24:08.174 --> 00:24:11.923 And as she began to learn more and more words, hundreds of words, 00:24:11.923 --> 00:24:17.182 much more rapidly than I ever imagined and swinging them together, 00:24:17.182 --> 00:24:20.211 I began to think maybe I will be wrong, 00:24:20.211 --> 00:24:26.403 maybe she will be the one that will prove that this hypothesis is incorrect. 00:24:26.403 --> 00:24:30.321 But Genie could not escape the effects of her past so easily. 00:24:30.321 --> 00:24:33.402 She was still haunted by her traumatic upbringing. 00:24:33.402 --> 00:24:36.641 Trapped by the memories of the awful fate she had suffered. 00:24:36.851 --> 00:24:40.264 And linguistically, she had stopped making progress. 00:24:40.264 --> 00:24:43.552 She learned tons of words, she has an enormous vocabulary. 00:24:43.802 --> 00:24:47.715 But language is not words, language is grammar, 00:24:47.995 --> 00:24:50.302 language is sentences. 00:24:50.842 --> 00:24:52.202 How do you make a sentence? 00:24:52.202 --> 00:24:53.686 What can be a sentence? 00:24:53.686 --> 00:24:54.954 What is a sentence? 00:24:54.954 --> 00:24:57.783 How do you automatically know something's a sentence? 00:24:58.413 --> 00:25:03.733 So, it wasn't because she was cognitively deficient in other respects, 00:25:03.733 --> 00:25:10.633 it was because she was cognitively deficient in this island of human mind, 00:25:10.633 --> 00:25:13.234 the mental faculty that we call grammar. 00:25:13.234 --> 00:25:17.132 At the time Genie was found, brain science was in its infancy. 00:25:17.132 --> 00:25:20.414 But today, we have a much clearer picture of what actually happens 00:25:20.414 --> 00:25:23.214 in cases of extreme neglect like Genie's. 00:25:24.744 --> 00:25:29.494 In Genie's brain, the left part of her, her brain, the, her cortex 00:25:29.494 --> 00:25:33.572 that, that has those neural systems responsible for speech and language, 00:25:33.572 --> 00:25:35.412 because she never heard any words 00:25:35.412 --> 00:25:38.403 and because she was never taught, 00:25:38.403 --> 00:25:41.403 spoken to very often, they didn't get stimulated. 00:25:41.403 --> 00:25:46.843 And because they weren't stimulated, they got smaller and less functional 00:25:46.843 --> 00:25:52.564 and disconnected and ultimately that part of the brain literally physically changes. 00:25:52.574 --> 00:25:57.343 Today, with modern imaging technology, we can actually see what happens 00:25:57.343 --> 00:26:01.952 in the brains of feral children, and the effects are shocking. 00:26:02.412 --> 00:26:06.734 Without normal stimulation, their brains are smaller and malformed. 00:26:06.734 --> 00:26:10.582 And the earlier this neglect begins, and the longer it carries on, 00:26:10.582 --> 00:26:12.542 the worse the damage will be. 00:26:13.042 --> 00:26:14.923 Starved of stimulation, 00:26:14.923 --> 00:26:18.753 Genie's brain had simply not developed the capacity for language. 00:26:18.753 --> 00:26:22.583 And now that she was a teenager, she would never be able to learn. 00:26:22.816 --> 00:26:27.053 Despite this, Genie continued to be a close part of everyone's life. 00:26:27.053 --> 00:26:29.462 But there was more trouble ahead. 00:26:32.002 --> 00:26:34.572 Children have to belong to somebody when they grow up, 00:26:34.572 --> 00:26:38.013 and she was still a child, and she needed a family to belong to. 00:26:38.013 --> 00:26:41.455 So that's what we would have liked, a family that she could belong to. 00:26:42.205 --> 00:26:45.395 Um, and that's not what happened unfortunately. 00:26:45.985 --> 00:26:51.635 What did happen is about the worst outcome, I think we would have envisioned. 00:26:52.224 --> 00:26:55.842 On her 18th birthday, Genie moved back with her mother Irene 00:26:55.842 --> 00:26:59.381 into the house in which she had been so terribly abused. 00:26:59.381 --> 00:27:03.583 But after only a few weeks, it was clear that Irene couldn't cope. 00:27:03.583 --> 00:27:08.105 From here, Genie was moved into state care with terrible consequences. 00:27:08.105 --> 00:27:09.965 [piano music] 00:27:09.965 --> 00:27:12.923 I was a student, and people wouldn't listen to me, 00:27:12.923 --> 00:27:15.995 people who needed to intervene did not listen to me, 00:27:15.995 --> 00:27:18.995 and so I spent lots and lots of time 00:27:18.995 --> 00:27:23.242 on the phone pleading with people to intervene and save this person, 00:27:23.242 --> 00:27:28.803 who had had the worst experience of deprivation and isolation 00:27:28.803 --> 00:27:31.003 in all recorded medical history. 00:27:31.383 --> 00:27:33.554 Genie moved from home to home, 00:27:33.554 --> 00:27:36.724 sometimes with the very people who served as her therapists. 00:27:36.954 --> 00:27:38.995 This potential conflict of interest 00:27:38.995 --> 00:27:42.595 raised tensions among the many people involved in her life, 00:27:42.595 --> 00:27:45.562 and a tug of war erupted over the child. 00:27:45.562 --> 00:27:50.003 As Genie's condition deteriorated, Irene decided that Susan Curtis 00:27:50.003 --> 00:27:53.252 and the other academics had become too close to Genie. 00:27:53.882 --> 00:27:55.462 A lawsuit followed. 00:27:58.072 --> 00:28:00.634 I went from being asked to be her guardian 00:28:00.634 --> 00:28:05.183 to one week later being prevented from seeing her or phoning her. 00:28:05.183 --> 00:28:09.165 And ever since then, I've been prevented from having any contact at all. 00:28:09.165 --> 00:28:13.384 So, although I have lots of, you know that I'm still a scientist, 00:28:13.384 --> 00:28:16.084 I'm still interested in knowing things 00:28:16.084 --> 00:28:19.970 about her language now and all kinds of interesting things 00:28:19.970 --> 00:28:22.220 I would like to pursue academically. 00:28:22.220 --> 00:28:25.254 Primarily, I would just like to see her. 00:28:25.614 --> 00:28:31.434 Now a ward of the court, Genie lives in an adult care home somewhere in Los Angeles. 00:28:31.434 --> 00:28:35.422 Prevented from seeing the people who once meant so much to her. 00:28:35.672 --> 00:28:39.834 But children like Genie continue to be discovered even today. 00:28:40.404 --> 00:28:44.224 We actually are seeing an increase in the number of severely neglected children 00:28:44.224 --> 00:28:47.564 who are in physically and socially isolated environments 00:28:47.564 --> 00:28:51.733 and, and have feral child-like properties. 00:28:51.733 --> 00:28:53.604 [piano music] 00:28:53.604 --> 00:28:55.984 [roar] 00:28:56.304 --> 00:29:03.902 [music] 00:29:03.902 --> 00:29:08.033 In the Ukraine, we uncovered an incredible story. 00:29:08.033 --> 00:29:12.512 Mirny is a depressed and rundown town miles from anywhere. 00:29:12.512 --> 00:29:17.154 Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mirny was a thriving Navy town. 00:29:17.154 --> 00:29:21.813 But now, half the flats are empty, and stray dogs roam the streets. 00:29:21.813 --> 00:29:25.806 But in 1999, social workers found a situation 00:29:25.806 --> 00:29:28.863 shocking even by the standards of Mirny. 00:29:30.213 --> 00:29:34.664 On the third floor of this block, a four-year-old boy called Edic 00:29:34.664 --> 00:29:37.245 was found in a deserted flat. 00:29:37.995 --> 00:29:40.914 His alcoholic mother was nowhere to be seen. 00:29:42.004 --> 00:29:45.194 As the authorities started asking questions, 00:29:45.194 --> 00:29:48.834 a horrifying picture began to emerge. 00:29:48.834 --> 00:29:52.893 While Edic's younger sister Nadia had been cared for by neighbors, 00:29:52.893 --> 00:29:56.513 Edic had been forced to look elsewhere for love and affection. 00:29:58.833 --> 00:30:03.134 Without a mother to care for him, Edic had turned to the local stray dogs 00:30:03.134 --> 00:30:05.203 for warmth and protection. 00:30:06.803 --> 00:30:11.425 Worse, he started to behave more like a dog than a human being. 00:30:11.433 --> 00:30:18.753 [music] 00:30:18.753 --> 00:30:20.442 [girl speaking Ukrainian] 00:30:20.442 --> 00:30:23.174 His behavior was exactly like a dog's behavior should be. 00:30:23.174 --> 00:30:25.263 He was taking the food only with his hands, 00:30:25.263 --> 00:30:27.894 and he was scratching the younger kids and biting them. 00:30:27.894 --> 00:30:36.443 [dog growling with kids talking in background] 00:30:36.443 --> 00:30:41.593 Two years later, Edic is six and lives in a foster home in the nearest city. 00:30:41.593 --> 00:30:45.522 He has made remarkable progress but still has many problems. 00:30:45.522 --> 00:30:49.294 His behavior has improved, and he is better with the other children. 00:30:49.294 --> 00:30:51.843 But linguistically, he is slow. 00:30:53.093 --> 00:30:58.775 Doctors have told us while Edic is six, his language is that of a three-year-old. 00:31:01.175 --> 00:31:05.495 It seemed that Edic was suffering from many of the same language problems 00:31:05.495 --> 00:31:08.513 that had affected Victor and Genie so badly. 00:31:08.513 --> 00:31:10.083 The crucial question: 00:31:10.083 --> 00:31:15.034 Had he been found in time, or would he, like them, never recover? 00:31:18.804 --> 00:31:22.465 To try and gain an accurate picture of Edic's condition, 00:31:22.465 --> 00:31:25.923 we took a leading language expert, professor James Law, 00:31:25.923 --> 00:31:28.923 to the Ukraine to evaluate Edic. 00:31:28.923 --> 00:31:33.514 There seemed to be a lot of similarities between Edic and other feral children. 00:31:33.934 --> 00:31:37.252 One of the interesting things is he's being identified rather younger 00:31:37.252 --> 00:31:39.012 than some of the more extreme cases. 00:31:39.012 --> 00:31:40.144 So, they were... NOTE Paragraph 00:31:40.144 --> 00:31:43.883 They had a, had a much longer, extended period of neglect, 00:31:43.883 --> 00:31:48.761 whereas his neglect has been pretty acute, but, but for a finite period of time, 00:31:48.761 --> 00:31:52.184 and then he's come to this warm and very supportive foster family, 00:31:52.184 --> 00:31:54.554 and that has to be a good thing. 00:31:54.554 --> 00:31:55.573 I'd like to start. 00:31:55.573 --> 00:31:58.743 To get a better picture, James spoke with Edic's foster mother. 00:31:58.743 --> 00:32:06.835 [Speaking Ukrainian] 00:32:06.835 --> 00:32:09.454 At the beginning, he was a wild child. 00:32:09.454 --> 00:32:14.674 He didn't know anything, he didn't even know what a plate or a spoon was, 00:32:14.674 --> 00:32:16.783 or how he should use them, 00:32:16.783 --> 00:32:21.203 and it took months to make him to eat normally and to get him to wear clothes 00:32:21.203 --> 00:32:23.055 and behave normally. 00:32:26.025 --> 00:32:31.286 Picture that his foster mother paints is in the last six months or so, 00:32:31.286 --> 00:32:34.004 there seems to be a bit of a breakthrough in some way, 00:32:34.004 --> 00:32:36.334 and it's not so much to do with his language, 00:32:36.334 --> 00:32:37.963 although that has been improving, 00:32:37.963 --> 00:32:42.657 it's to do with his ability to relate to other people and to like empathize. 00:32:44.687 --> 00:32:47.114 With Edic's background clear in his mind, 00:32:47.114 --> 00:32:51.704 James could begin to make a more formal assessment 00:32:51.884 --> 00:32:54.884 of Edic's strengths and weaknesses. 00:32:55.114 --> 00:32:59.654 As the session progressed, it was clear that Edic was reveling in the attention. 00:33:01.084 --> 00:33:05.720 But just how much of an impact had two years of neglect had on his language? 00:33:05.720 --> 00:33:08.032 It was time for James to find out. 00:33:08.032 --> 00:33:11.067 [dogs barking] 00:33:11.067 --> 00:33:14.794 [boy speaking in Ukrainian] 00:33:14.794 --> 00:33:20.836 Listen, listen, sh sh sh sh. 00:33:20.836 --> 00:33:23.415 Edic, (Ukrainian) 00:33:23.415 --> 00:33:26.625 Just quickly, point to the elephant first. 00:33:26.625 --> 00:33:30.086 Sh sh, listen very carefully. 00:33:30.086 --> 00:33:34.773 Point to the elephant first and then point to the giraffe. 00:33:34.773 --> 00:33:38.405 (Speaking Ukrainian) 00:33:38.405 --> 00:33:40.626 Good boy, well done. 00:33:42.716 --> 00:33:45.224 Point to the cat and then to the bird. 00:33:45.224 --> 00:33:48.486 (Speaking Ukrainian) 00:33:48.486 --> 00:33:49.955 Okay. 00:33:50.825 --> 00:33:51.565 Nocking. 00:33:51.565 --> 00:33:53.334 Nocking, oh. 00:33:53.334 --> 00:33:54.363 (laughter) 00:33:54.363 --> 00:33:57.533 Linguistically, Edic had made good progress since moving 00:33:57.533 --> 00:34:01.094 from the awful conditions in the town in which he was found. 00:34:01.094 --> 00:34:04.265 But the details of his past were still unclear. 00:34:04.265 --> 00:34:08.644 To get a better picture, James needed to take Edic back to Myrni, 00:34:08.644 --> 00:34:11.615 the town where he had been so badly treated by humans 00:34:11.615 --> 00:34:14.425 that dogs had become his most faithful companions. 00:34:14.425 --> 00:34:18.845 [music] 00:34:18.845 --> 00:34:21.275 As he walked around the village, Edic could remember 00:34:21.275 --> 00:34:23.846 little of the details of what happened to him. 00:34:23.856 --> 00:34:27.656 [music] 00:34:27.656 --> 00:34:31.306 But he could remember some of the places behind the flats 00:34:31.306 --> 00:34:35.325 where he had run and slept with the dogs that had become his family. 00:34:35.325 --> 00:34:40.795 [music] 00:34:40.795 --> 00:34:45.307 As he continued, Edic's confidence and memory seemed to be improving. 00:34:45.937 --> 00:34:50.034 He wanted to show James the flat where he had lived with the dogs. 00:34:51.394 --> 00:34:54.145 But as we reemerged at the front of the block, 00:34:54.145 --> 00:34:57.145 we were greeted by a local delegation. 00:34:57.145 --> 00:35:01.216 Somehow, the mayor and police had been alerted to our presence. 00:35:02.926 --> 00:35:07.876 They claimed that the story about Edic was a lie and demanded we stop filming. 00:35:07.876 --> 00:35:10.596 She knows this woman, she saying that everything that she 00:35:10.596 --> 00:35:12.646 was told about this family is totally wrong 00:35:12.646 --> 00:35:14.936 and that's why you shouldn't film anything here. 00:35:14.936 --> 00:35:17.545 It was clear that something had happened here, 00:35:17.545 --> 00:35:19.954 but with the mayor and police's vigorous denials, 00:35:19.954 --> 00:35:22.954 it was far from certain exactly what. 00:35:22.954 --> 00:35:27.115 However, as we were leaving the town, James was approached by a local woman 00:35:27.115 --> 00:35:29.975 who clearly recognized both Edic and Nadia. 00:35:30.285 --> 00:35:33.625 Despite the police's intervention, she was determined to tell him 00:35:33.625 --> 00:35:36.706 what she had seen when the children lived in the town. 00:35:36.896 --> 00:35:41.675 It was horrible conditions, she never come in her flat. 00:35:41.675 --> 00:35:45.145 There was fish, there was fish on the floor, and the dogs living there 00:35:45.145 --> 00:35:47.284 and just the conditions was absolutely awful. 00:35:47.284 --> 00:35:50.894 We have heard stories that the children used to play a lot with the dogs 00:35:50.894 --> 00:35:52.533 with the animals around the flats. 00:35:52.533 --> 00:35:57.705 (Speaking Ukrainian) 00:35:57.705 --> 00:36:02.083 She's saying that...she's saying that yes, the children were good friends 00:36:02.083 --> 00:36:05.925 of the local dogs and home, and stray dogs use to come live in their flat. 00:36:05.925 --> 00:36:08.776 There were always not less then three dogs in their flat 00:36:08.776 --> 00:36:10.814 and Edic was sleeping with them. 00:36:11.144 --> 00:36:14.795 But could a young child really live with dogs? 00:36:14.795 --> 00:36:19.315 And if they could, how would this incredible relationship work? 00:36:19.665 --> 00:36:23.895 Animal expert Steve Fryer has worked with dogs for over 20 years 00:36:23.895 --> 00:36:26.646 and studied their very special bond with man. 00:36:26.946 --> 00:36:30.894 The relationship between domesticated dogs and humans is really very special 00:36:30.894 --> 00:36:35.246 and it's almost a primeval, urgent feelings that we get about dogs, 00:36:35.246 --> 00:36:38.234 and I'm sure they have about us because they've been around us 00:36:38.234 --> 00:36:40.084 for so many thousands of years and 00:36:40.084 --> 00:36:42.834 it's been passed on through generation after generation. 00:36:42.834 --> 00:36:46.316 But how would he explain Edic's incredible story? 00:36:46.826 --> 00:36:51.166 I believe food was the issue and the dogs were coming into the warmth and security 00:36:51.166 --> 00:36:54.756 of the apartment and getting regular food or irregular food. 00:36:54.756 --> 00:36:58.276 So, they must have seen this young child as a provider for the pack 00:36:58.276 --> 00:37:01.777 and perhaps pushed his status up much higher than if he had just been 00:37:01.777 --> 00:37:04.685 a three-year-old child running around with them. 00:37:05.435 --> 00:37:08.406 Dogs are very quick to learn to seize on an opportunity. 00:37:08.406 --> 00:37:12.336 So, if there's free food source, then it would be a very big bonus 00:37:12.336 --> 00:37:16.294 in their thinking capacity for, for, towards this child. 00:37:17.264 --> 00:37:19.326 Edic, it seems, was lucky. 00:37:19.326 --> 00:37:22.696 By offering the dogs food and shelter, he in return 00:37:22.696 --> 00:37:27.186 received the warmth and and companionship that probably saved his life. 00:37:27.186 --> 00:37:32.004 But after only two years with the dogs, he had suffered serious consequences. 00:37:33.294 --> 00:37:34.895 But what of Oxana? 00:37:34.895 --> 00:37:39.455 She is now 19, but spent almost six years living in a kennel. 00:37:39.455 --> 00:37:42.936 She was found at eight, almost the same age as Victor. 00:37:45.896 --> 00:37:50.385 Would she ever be able to talk, or would she, like Victor and 00:37:50.385 --> 00:37:54.975 Genie before her, be condemned to a life of silence? 00:37:54.975 --> 00:38:04.916 [music] 00:38:04.916 --> 00:38:09.146 Oxana is now 19 and lives miles from the nearest town 00:38:09.146 --> 00:38:11.845 in a home for the mentally ill. 00:38:12.445 --> 00:38:16.255 When she was discovered at eight, she couldn't even talk. 00:38:16.255 --> 00:38:20.115 According to brain theory, Oxana would have only three or four years 00:38:20.115 --> 00:38:24.376 to learn language before she lost the chance forever. 00:38:24.376 --> 00:38:26.837 In this short time, Oxana made it. 00:38:27.237 --> 00:38:30.487 She can now talk in simple sentences, but she is haunted 00:38:30.487 --> 00:38:33.715 by the memories of her terrible past, and even now, 00:38:33.715 --> 00:38:37.937 as this footage shows, she can still revert to her old behavior. 00:38:37.937 --> 00:38:45.196 [barking, howling] 00:38:45.196 --> 00:38:48.636 My mom wanted to have a boy and she had a girl instead, 00:38:48.636 --> 00:38:51.506 and so she just threw me out and put me into the kennels. 00:38:51.506 --> 00:38:53.804 When I was small, the dogs would breast feed me, 00:38:53.804 --> 00:38:56.736 and later they brought me, like when I was bigger, 00:38:56.736 --> 00:38:59.854 they brought me what people gave them, and they shared it with me. 00:38:59.854 --> 00:39:02.324 I wasn't scared of them at all, it was my home. 00:39:03.416 --> 00:39:07.814 So what does the future hold for Oxana? 00:39:07.814 --> 00:39:10.887 The only thing we can do is to try and correct her behavior 00:39:10.887 --> 00:39:13.695 so she gets use to living in a human society. 00:39:13.695 --> 00:39:17.265 The best way to do it is to try and find a proper occupation for her, 00:39:17.265 --> 00:39:22.104 and it will focus her mind from dogs and animals to some sort of useful occupation, 00:39:22.104 --> 00:39:25.136 but she will never be considered a normal person. 00:39:25.136 --> 00:39:27.507 [piano music] 00:39:27.507 --> 00:39:31.236 Found at eight, Oxana has made amazing progress, 00:39:31.236 --> 00:39:34.837 but like Victor and Genie before her, it seems that her development 00:39:34.837 --> 00:39:38.086 has come some way but will now go no further. 00:39:38.086 --> 00:39:44.483 [piano music] 00:39:44.483 --> 00:39:47.775 But what about Edic, what does his future hold? 00:39:48.775 --> 00:39:52.907 The earlier children are identified and something can be done about it, 00:39:52.907 --> 00:39:55.717 even if it's just stabilizing their environment, 00:39:55.717 --> 00:39:58.717 the better it is for those children. 00:39:58.717 --> 00:40:04.404 My sense is that the fact that he was identified when he was four 00:40:04.404 --> 00:40:06.946 is going to stand him in good state. 00:40:06.946 --> 00:40:11.055 Linguistically, Edic's future looks encouraging. 00:40:11.975 --> 00:40:17.366 And what you're seeing in Edic is a, a really substantial number of 00:40:17.366 --> 00:40:22.206 words that he's now acquired over a, relatively short period of time. 00:40:22.206 --> 00:40:26.636 We're also, seeing his grammar developing and it seems to be 00:40:26.636 --> 00:40:29.074 developing more slowly, but of course it always does 00:40:29.074 --> 00:40:32.277 develop more slowly, and then it would, it'll really take off. 00:40:32.277 --> 00:40:36.167 I'm assuming that in the next year or so that we, we would have a, 00:40:36.167 --> 00:40:39.797 what they call a grammar burst, where you get a massive number 00:40:39.797 --> 00:40:46.545 of new structures and it looks to me as if Edic is doing that on his own 00:40:46.545 --> 00:40:48.555 without instruction. 00:40:48.555 --> 00:40:51.056 And one would take that to be a very positive sign. 00:40:51.666 --> 00:40:55.405 But socially, he's likely to find things more difficult. 00:40:56.805 --> 00:41:04.214 In Edic's case, we probably have an example of a child who 00:41:04.214 --> 00:41:09.605 orientates towards the dogs because being with them was actually 00:41:09.605 --> 00:41:11.485 to his advantage. 00:41:11.975 --> 00:41:15.804 I think it's impossible to underestimate the impact that this could 00:41:15.804 --> 00:41:17.856 have in the long term. 00:41:17.856 --> 00:41:20.775 Do we observe him in the orphanage? 00:41:20.775 --> 00:41:26.145 You see, he attaches to almost anybody indiscriminately, 00:41:26.145 --> 00:41:28.675 and what is likely to happen is that 00:41:28.675 --> 00:41:32.186 he's gonna be vulnerable socially and I think his personal development 00:41:32.186 --> 00:41:35.135 is what I would be most concerned about. 00:41:35.135 --> 00:41:37.604 Edic is likely to suffer the consequences 00:41:37.604 --> 00:41:41.414 of his early experiences for many years to come. 00:41:41.414 --> 00:41:45.166 But it would be wrong to see feral children simply as hopeless. 00:41:45.166 --> 00:41:47.315 [piano music] 00:41:47.315 --> 00:41:51.716 We should look at these children not with pity but with awe. 00:41:51.716 --> 00:41:55.026 I mean, they're just, it's fascinating that 00:41:55.026 --> 00:41:56.906 you can go through something like that 00:41:56.906 --> 00:42:01.042 and that you would still be willing, after what human beings have done to you, 00:42:01.042 --> 00:42:06.105 that you'd still be willing to put your hand out and touch a new person. 00:42:06.105 --> 00:42:10.866 Faced with almost unimaginable situations, feral children have come up 00:42:10.866 --> 00:42:14.066 with the best strategies they could to survive. 00:42:14.066 --> 00:42:16.444 And for the last 200 years, NOTE Paragraph 00:42:16.444 --> 00:42:19.904 science has tried to understand the mysteries they pose. 00:42:19.904 --> 00:42:23.196 With Victor, Itard made the first steps, 00:42:23.196 --> 00:42:27.026 a process that continued with Susan Curtis's work with Genie, 00:42:27.026 --> 00:42:29.576 and goes on right up to today 00:42:29.576 --> 00:42:33.366 with evaluations of children like Oxana and Edic. 00:42:34.206 --> 00:42:38.305 We are continuing to learn more and more about how to help these children 00:42:38.305 --> 00:42:40.116 and more and more about how these 00:42:40.116 --> 00:42:43.506 neglectful experiences influence their brain, 00:42:43.506 --> 00:42:50.165 but we're just on the very very very cusp of being able to be helpful. 00:42:50.165 --> 00:42:52.796 Because today, we haven't done a very good job of that, 00:42:52.796 --> 00:42:56.125 we just haven't understood the brain and brain development in ways 00:42:56.125 --> 00:42:58.804 that would allow us to be as good as we can be, 00:42:58.804 --> 00:43:00.446 and I think that that's changing. 00:43:00.446 --> 00:43:04.546 And as we look to the future, one thing is certain. 00:43:04.546 --> 00:43:08.595 The story of feral children is far from over. 00:43:08.595 --> 00:43:11.134 I think there always will be stories like this. 00:43:11.134 --> 00:43:14.796 Really, as long as adults you know, abandoning children, 00:43:14.796 --> 00:43:16.576 leaving them to their own devices. 00:43:16.576 --> 00:43:22.044 As long as, really, adult cruelty goes on, then there will be feral children.