Wild Child: The Story of Feral Children

(Music)

Children are precious to human kind.

We satisfy our innate desire to
nurture

and carry on our bloodline through
our progeny.

Our children, in turn, rely on us
for love and survival.

What happens to a child that's been
abandoned by all who are charged

with protecting him and left to fend
for himself in the wild.

Or when a girl grows up in solitary
confinement in her own family's home

never knowing love or social interaction.

(Piano music)

Since the earliest of times, such stories

were thought to be nothing more than
myths.

Could there be any truth to the lore of
feral children?

(Ire music)

The word "feral" means wild or
undomesticated.

It brings to mind the myth of Romulus,
the founder of Rome,

and his twin brother Remus, who were
raised by a wolf.

Or that of Tarzan, who lived among
animals in the wild.

For centuries, feral children have posed
questions that go to the very heart

of what it is to be human.

One of the central questions in all of
science that has to do with humans

is are we a product of our genes or are
we a product of our experience.

The old nature, nurture issue.

Feral children tap into this because they
are the natural experiment

that we're not allowed to carry out.

They are the children who go through
extraordinary circumstances at

which no one could naturally create.

But the fascination, I think, actually
originates in these sort of primal ideas

about the difference between humans
and animals.

Part of being a human is being brought
up by humans.

If you're not brought up by humans are
you completely human?

And I think in some of these cases
that's the issue that we're dealing with.

(bark, bark, bark, bark)

(bark, bark, bark)

One of the most extraordinary cases ever

has recently come to light in the Ukraine.

Oxana Malaya was born in November 1983.

According to medical records, she was a
healthy child.

So, how did Oxana become more like a dog
than a human being?

Her parents were alcoholics, and one
night,

too drunk to care,
they left Oxana outside.

Looking for warmth, the three year old
crawled into the farm kennel

and curled up with the mongrel dog that
probably saved her life.

(Bark, growl)

But while the dog helped her survive,

her time in the kennel
also had awful consequences.

(Arf, Arf, growl)

For the next five years, she would spend
her life living as a dog.

(Bark, bark bark, growl)

(Howling)

(drum music)

(Speaking Ukrainian)

She was more like a little dog then a
human child.

First of all she couldn't speak, or she
could hardly speak.

And actually the purpose of speaking,

well she didn't think it was necessary
to speak at all.

(Speaking Ukrainian)

Children can copy the habits of the
creatures around them

if those creatures are human beings
they become like human beings

but, as you know, she was surrounded
by dogs.

So she became more like a dog than
a human being.

(Water running noise)

But surely the story of Oxana is a rarity,

the product of alcoholic parents in a
poor and depressed part of the world.

Incredibly, it would seem not.

Throughout history, children have been
abandoned by their parents.

Most die quickly, but some, the survivors,

have resorted to extraordinary means
to stay alive.

How they have survived and who they
become are questions that have long

fascinated scientists, but understanding
these children

has been a slow and difficult process.

A very very good clinicians and
researchers

have, with the tools that they had in
their day and age,

they've tried to understand
what happened but because

it's such a complex set of phenomenon,
our understanding has been limited,

and it's incrementally, from generation
to generation to generation,

we've had better tools to better

understand what happens to these
children.

The first scientifically documented case
occurred in 1800 in France.

It would send shock waves throughout
civilized Europe.

(music)

The scientific study of feral children
began in the most

improbable of circumstances.

On a cloudy afternoon in southwest
France,

two hunters
were out in the woods looking for deer.

It had been a long day and they hadn't
caught anything,

but their luck was about to change.

(ire noises)

(tribal drums)

For years, scared villagers had talked
of a strange wild child

that lurked in the forest.

(bark, bark, bark, bark, bark)

He had been caught twice before but
had always managed to escape.

(bark, bark bark)

This time, however, he wouldn't
get away.

(bark, bark, bark)

News of the capture spread fast.

In Paris, one young doctor, Jean Itard,
was especially interested.

(music)

The boy was brought to Paris.

Most of the city's medical professionals

quickly decided that the boy, now called
Victor, was nothing more than an idiot.

But something about him captivated
Itard.

The first thing which is truly remarkable
about Itard,

is his extremely scientific approach
to reporting what he did.

He gives a wonderful wealth of detail
about the child,

what the child did, when he tried
certain things.

So he is very clearly linked into

a tradition which we're still involved
with now.

(clap, clap)

The modern scientific study of feral
children had begun.

For Itard there were two tests of
what it meant to be human,

the ability to feel empathy and to
use language.

Victor could do neither, and so was,
in Itard's eyes scarcely human.

(music)

No, Victor no alet.

At first, he was wild and hard to
control.

But slowly, Dr. Itard and his
housekeeper, Madame Guérin

started making progress.

Itard's belief in love and kindness
seemed to be working.

(music)

But after his years alone in the
woods, Itard knew that Victor

still craved for the wild.

Every day they would walk together,

and with every day, Victor became
less wild.

(music)

And eventually, Madame Guérin was
able to take over

what were, for Victor, some of his
happiest times.

(music)

He loved nature, but he also seemed
to be showing

real feelings for the people around him.

I think that Jean Itard understood the
importance of parental love

and so, he put Victor in a situation
where he had in essence a um,

substitute mother, Madame Guérin
and she played the role of mother.

She understood the importance of
constant care

and understood intuitively how important
it is to touch people.

(music)

And in the months that followed, there
was even more progress.

Victor enjoyed helping Madame Guérin
and had learned to lay the table.

(flute music)

But one lunch time he was laying the
table as usual when Madame Guérin

started crying.

Her husband had recently died.

Incredibly, Victor seemed to understand.

Quietly, he simply removed the place
setting.

(flute music)

This was the breakthrough Itard
had been waiting for.

Victor seemed to be showing real empathy
and understanding at last.

(music)

By putting away, um, the place he laid, he
was showing that he could empathize

with Madame Guérin.

He realized that he'd made a mistake.

That his mistake had hurt her and I think
in by doing that,

he was showing his ability to put himself
in a position of another human being,

something which, when he was first
brought to Paris,

would have seemed impossible.

Victor had passed the first of Itard's
tests.

Nervous but excited, Itard realized that
it was now or never.

It was time for Victor to learn to talk.

(music)

But before he could talk, Itard wanted to
know that Victor could recognize sounds.

To test this, he blindfolded him and gave
him a drum and a bell.

(music)

It was a game Victor loved and
understood immediately.

For Itard, this was just the start he had
wanted.

Did his mean that Victor would finally
be able to master language?

(drum and bell sounds)

A drum is one thing, but language is
infinitely more complex.

Before he would be able to talk, Itard
knew that Victor would have to

master his vowel sounds,

the building blocks of all language.

O

Victor (something in French)

Victor.

But this time, Victor was at a complete
loss.

To him, it was all nothing more
than a game.

Ah,

Itard could see his dreams for Victor
disappearing before his eyes,

and for the first time ever, lost his
temper with the boy.

Victor no (slap sound)

(boy crying)

But it was no good, Itard realized
that Victor just couldn't make sense

of the sounds that other children take
for granted.

(music)

Without this, how could he ever be
expected to talk?

Itard felt that, to be a human being in
the fullest possible sense,

you had to be sociable, you had to be
language using,

had to be measured, orderly, artificial,
and when he realized

that Victor was unable to obtain that,
I think he loses interest

and um, really leaves him to his own
devices.

For the next 20 years, Victor would live
with Madame Guérin.

Happy, but abandoned by the man who
had tried so hard to save him.

With Victor, Itard had shown that it
possible to bring a feral child

back into society, but with language,
the ultimate test, he had failed.

Despite this, interest in feral children
continued unabated.

In 1828, a young boy, Casper Hauser,
was found lost and alone

in Germany.

His background as much of a mystery
as Victor's.

And as the century wore on, more reports
were appearing from distant corners

of the globe.

From India, in particular, came a series

of stories about children living with
wolves.

Distant and unproven, to scientists they
seemed little more than myth.

Then, in 1930, a properly documented case

of two girls living with a wolf pack came
to light.

American scientists were particularly
interested,

but before the girls could get to the
United States, both died of fever.

One of the scientists who had been
waiting to see them

was primatologist Winthrop Kellogg.

Despite this setback, he was determined
to prove

that nurture was the dominant influence
in child development.

Kellogg knew that the perfect way to
prove his theory was to um,

engineer a feral child .

To bring to get a baby, put them among
wolves and to see what happened.

Clearly this is the one experiment
he couldn't do,

this was the forbidden experiment.

So what he decided to do was the next
best thing,

which was to reverse that forbidden
experiment

and to bring an ape into human family.

For the next year, the chimpanzee Gua,

would spend every day with Kellogg's
young son Donald.

As Kellogg had predicted, Gua could learn
many human characteristics,

but the experiment had unforeseen
consequences.

Kellogg really thought of this as an
experiment on the chimpanzee.

In actual fact, it became equally
an experiment on his son.

Particularly in the way in which his
son was picking up,

or not picking up, language.

Rather than learning words,

Donald was learning the barks
and yelps of a chimpanzee.

Horrified, Kellogg called off the
experiment.

Almost by accident, Kellogg had shown
the vulnerability of early childhood.

How the smallest changes in
environment

can have unforeseen and long lasting
effects.

It was a subject that continued to
intrigue scientists.

In the 1960s, American psychologist
Harry Harlow

continued where Kellogg had left off.

Harlow's work was really seminal in this
entire field

because he showed the crucial importance
of the caregiving relationship

between a mother and an infant and how
the physical stimulation,

literally the physical contact with the
caregiver,

has profound impact on healthy
development.

At birth, Harlow took baby monkeys
from their mothers.

They were then given a choice between
a cold wire monkey with milk

or a soft warm monkey without.

Amazingly, they chose the more comforting
figure every time.

And socially, the effects were
devastating.

Raised in isolation, without any love or
encouragement,

these young monkeys were scared and
confused.

Harlow couldn't explain it,

but something about this early isolation
had damaged them for life.

But these were monkeys.

Would the same be true for a human child?

It would be another 20 years before
scientists had a chance to find out,

and when they did, it would be in the
busiest, most urban setting imaginable.

Officials in the Los Angeles suburb
of Arcadia

have taken custody of a 13-year-old girl,

and they say was kept in such isolation
by her parents

that she never even learned to talk.

The girl still wore diapers and was
uttering

infantile noises when a social worker
discovered the case two weeks ago.

The authorities are hoping she still may
have a normal learning capacity.

Among the first to see the child was

Temple City detective Sergeant
Frank Linley.

(Ire music)

I already knew that the child was
13 1/2 years old

and I took one look at her and she wasn't
much bigger

than my daughter Beverly, who had just
turned seven about three months earlier,

and I really had a hard time
conceiving of the idea

that the child was the age that
she was.

The child obviously had been
severely mistreated.

After she was still in diapers,
couldn't walk,

she had no verbal skills at all at
that point.

(Ire music)

The last time I was on this street was
probably 30 years ago.

Yup, there it is.

Hasn't changed much, the backyard
looks the same,

it's all weeds and dead grass.

Looks the same as it did in 1970.

The house belonged to Clark Wiley.

A loner, Clark had turned his back
on the world

after his mother had been killed
in a hit and run accident.

After the accident, things in the Wiley
house would never be the same again.

(ire piano music)

The house was completely dark,

all the blinds were drawn,

and there were no toys,

no clothes, nothing that would ever
indicate

to you that a child of any age lived
there.

(Ire music)

The child's bedroom was back
in this corner.

That was the bedroom.

The windows were covered to
about three inches from the top,

which were the only natural light
that had ever come in there

in all the time the child was in the
bedroom.

Entire furnishings in the bedroom
consisted of a cage

with a uh, pull-down chicken-wire lid

and some type of piece of wire securing
it when they closed it down.

There was a potty chair with some
kind of homemade strapping device.

For 13 years Genie had spent her
nights locked in bed.

Her days, strapped to a potty chair.

During that time, Clark had ordered
his son John

and wife Irene never to talk to her.

In her darkened room, she had lead a
life of near-total isolation.

Even close neighbors were completely
unaware of her presence.

We came home from work and the
police was here and

they came to question us.

That's when we found out you know,
what happened

and, you know, that they had a little
girl.

Nobody know, nobody knew before.

And when we found out what happened,

how she was treated.

I mean, everybody was shocked
and just unbelievable.

For their whole marriage,
Clark had imposed his will on Irene,

and blind with cataracts,
she had been too scared to resist.

But one day, something broke.

While Clark was out buying groceries,
she seized her chance and fled.

It was the first glimpse the world would
have of Clark and Irene's dark secret.

I met Clark and Irene
at Temple City Sheriffs station,

they were both under arrest at the time.

When we interviewed Irene, she would
make no mention of the family whatsoever,

particularly the children.

I attempted along with my partner
to interview Clark.

he refused to talk to us, he wouldn't
say a word.

He never even acknowledged that he
understood what we were talking about.

Unable to face the truth,
Clark took matters into his own hands.

This morning, the authorities reported
that 70-year-old Clark Wiley

shot and killed himself, just before
he was

to go to court and be arraigned for
child abuse.

After 13 years, Genie was at last free.

And for scientists, she was
just the case they had been waiting for.

For 13 years, Genie had lived a life
of complete isolation.

Raised in a city bedroom, Genie was
as much a feral child

as if she had been brought up by wolves.

At 13, she was the size of a six-year-old.

Worst of all, she had never been
taught to speak.

The question now, could she ever
learn?

(Ire music)

Genie's case was so scientifically
important that the government

funded a team of scientists to help
answer the many questions she posed.

(It's so good to see you.)

Two of the scientists who would
become especially important to Genie

were child psychologist Kent
and linguist Susan Curtis.

(It's so wonderful to see you, thank god.)

Neither had ever encountered a case
as extreme as Genie's.

(ire music)

We looked at her as a as a newborn in
a way, even though we know she hadn't.

She came with 13 years of memories and
experiences, not all of them wonderful,

most of them not, I think, and so we felt
we needed to start to expose her

to what the world was going to be like
for her outside the hospital bed.

To Genie, everything was a new experience.

We did what you would do with,
with your own kids,

if you were introducing them to the
world.

You'd take them out and hold them up
and show them,

and sort of judge from how they reacted
to whether this was to much or not enough

and you could move on and do
the next thing.

Genie was making amazing progress,
as the experts looked on

they realized that she might be
the answer to the question that

had troubled science for so long.

So, we seized this wonderful opportunity
that she provided us

in as loving a way as we could,
but using it to finally

get our chance to address head on
specific hypotheses

and notions about human language
and the human mind.

(piano music)

These hypotheses were based on the
latest ideas

about how children's brains developed.

According to the theory, young children
could

only learn certain things at certain
times, called critical periods.

Language was one of these critical
periods, and according to the theory,

Genie, who was now a teenager,
had missed her chance forever.

(Piano music)

But incredibly, Genie seemed to be
proving the theory wrong.

As this footage shows, Genie was
blossoming.

Not only was she delighted by the
world around her,

but she was learning the words
for the new things

she was seeing.

[piano music]

She was extremely interested in
everything around her,

she wanted to know the word for
everything around her.

She wanted to engage people all around
her.

She was not mentally deficient, her
lights were on,

and everyone who worked with
her, from teachers,

to therapists, to me, knew that she
was not retarded.

It was clear as day.

[piano music]

And as she began to learn more
and more words, hundreds of words,

much more rapidly than I ever imagined
and swinging them together,

I began to think maybe I will
be wrong,

maybe she will be the one that will
prove that this hypothesis is incorrect.

But Genie could not escape the
effects of her past so easily.

She was still haunted by her
traumatic upbringing.

Trapped by the memories of the
awful fate she had suffered.

And linguistically, she had stopped
making progress.

She learned tons of words, she has
an enormous vocabulary.

But language is not words, language
is grammar,

language is sentences.

How do you make a sentence?

What can be a sentence?

What is a sentence?

How do you automatically know
something's a sentence?

So, it wasn't because she was cognitively
deficient in other respects,

it was because she was cognitively
deficient in this island of human mind,

the mental faculty that we call grammar.

At the time Genie was found, brain
science was in its infancy.

But today, we have a much clearer
picture of what actually happens

in cases of extreme neglect like Genie's.

In Genie's brain, the left part of her,
her brain, the, her cortex

that, that has those neural systems
responsible for speech and language,

because she never heard any words

and because she was never taught,

spoken to very often, they didn't
get stimulated.

And because they weren't stimulated,
they got smaller and less functional

and disconnected and ultimately that part
of the brain literally physically changes.

Today, with modern imaging technology,
we can actually see what happens

in the brains of feral children,
and the effects are shocking.

Without normal stimulation,
their brains are smaller and malformed.

And the earlier this neglect begins,
and the longer it carries on,

the worse the damage will be.

Starved of stimulation,

Genie's brain had simply not
developed the capacity for language.

And now that she was a teenager,
she would never be able to learn.

Despite this, Genie continued to be a
close part of everyone's life.

But there was more trouble ahead.

Children have to belong to somebody
when they grow up,

and she was still a child, and she
needed a family to belong to.

So that's what we would have liked,
a family that she could belong to.

Um, and that's not what happened
unfortunately.

What did happen is about the worst
outcome, I think we would have envisioned.

On her 18th birthday, Genie moved
back with her mother Irene

into the house in which she had been
so terribly abused.

But after only a few weeks, it was clear
that Irene couldn't cope.

From here, Genie was moved into
state care with terrible consequences.

[piano music]

I was a student, and people wouldn't
listen to me,

people who needed to intervene
did not listen to me,

and so I spent lots and lots of time

on the phone pleading with people
to intervene and save this person,

who had had the worst experience
of deprivation and isolation

in all recorded medical history.

Genie moved from home to home,

sometimes with the very people
who served as her therapists.

This potential conflict of interest

raised tensions among the many people
involved in her life,

and a tug of war erupted over the child.

As Genie's condition deteriorated,
Irene decided that Susan Curtis

and the other academics had become
too close to Genie.

A lawsuit followed.

I went from being asked to be her guardian

to one week later being prevented from
seeing her or phoning her.

And ever since then, I've been prevented
from having any contact at all.

So, although I have lots of,
you know that I'm still a scientist,

I'm still interested in knowing things

about her language now and all kinds
of interesting things

I would like to pursue academically.

Primarily, I would just like to see her.

Now a ward of the court, Genie lives in an
adult care home somewhere in Los Angeles.

Prevented from seeing the people who
once meant so much to her.

But children like Genie continue to be
discovered even today.

We actually are seeing an increase in
the number of severely neglected children

who are in physically and
socially isolated environments

and, and have feral child-like properties.

[piano music]

[roar]

[music]

In the Ukraine, we uncovered an
incredible story.

Mirny is a depressed and rundown
town miles from anywhere.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union,
Mirny was a thriving Navy town.

But now, half the flats are empty, and
stray dogs roam the streets.

But in 1999, social workers found a
situation

shocking even by the standards of Mirny.

On the third floor of this block,
a four-year-old boy called Edic

was found in a deserted flat.

His alcoholic mother was nowhere
to be seen.

As the authorities started asking
questions,

a horrifying picture began to emerge.

While Edic's younger sister Nadia had
been cared for by neighbors,

Edic had been forced to look elsewhere
for love and affection.

Without a mother to care for him,
Edic had turned to the local stray dogs

for warmth and protection.

Worse, he started to behave more like
a dog than a human being.

[music]

[girl speaking Ukrainian]

His behavior was exactly like
a dog's behavior should be.

He was taking the food only with
his hands,

and he was scratching the younger
kids and biting them.

[dog growling with kids talking in
background]

Two years later, Edic is six and lives in
a foster home in the nearest city.

He has made remarkable progress but
still has many problems.

His behavior has improved, and he is
better with the other children.

But linguistically, he is slow.

Doctors have told us while Edic is six,
his language is that of a three-year-old.

It seemed that Edic was suffering from
many of the same language problems

that had affected Victor and Genie
so badly.

The crucial question:

Had he been found in time,
or would he, like them, never recover?

To try and gain an accurate picture
of Edic's condition,

we took a leading language expert,
professor James Law,

to the Ukraine to evaluate Edic.

There seemed to be a lot of similarities
between Edic and other feral children.

One of the interesting things is he's
being identified rather younger

than some of the more extreme cases.

So, they were...

They had a, had a much longer,
extended period of neglect,

whereas his neglect has been pretty acute,
but, but for a finite period of time,

and then he's come to this warm and
very supportive foster family,

and that has to be a good thing.

I'd like to start.

To get a better picture, James spoke
with Edic's foster mother.

[Speaking Ukrainian]

At the beginning, he was a wild child.

He didn't know anything, he didn't
even know what a plate or a spoon was,

or how he should use them,

and it took months to make him to eat
normally and to get him to wear clothes

and behave normally.

Picture that his foster mother
paints is in the last six months or so,

there seems to be a bit of a
breakthrough in some way,

and it's not so much to do with his
language,

although that has been improving,

it's to do with his ability to relate to
other people and to like empathize.

With Edic's background clear in his mind,

James could begin to make a more formal
assessment

of Edic's strengths and weaknesses.

As the session progressed, it was clear
that Edic was reveling in the attention.

But just how much of an impact had two
years of neglect had on his language?

It was time for James to find out.

[dogs barking]

[boy speaking in Ukrainian]

Listen, listen, sh sh sh sh.

Edic, (Ukrainian)

Just quickly, point to the elephant
first.

Sh sh, listen very carefully.

Point to the elephant first and
then point to the giraffe.

(Speaking Ukrainian)

Good boy, well done.

Point to the cat and then to the bird.

(Speaking Ukrainian)

Okay.

Nocking.

Nocking, oh.

(laughter)

Linguistically, Edic had made good
progress since moving

from the awful conditions in the
town in which he was found.

But the details of his past were
still unclear.

To get a better picture, James needed
to take Edic back to Myrni,

the town where he had been so badly
treated by humans

that dogs had become
his most faithful companions.

[music]

As he walked around the village,
Edic could remember

little of the details of what happened
to him.

[music]

But he could remember some of the
places behind the flats

where he had run and slept with the dogs
that had become his family.

[music]

As he continued, Edic's confidence and
memory seemed to be improving.

He wanted to show James the flat
where he had lived with the dogs.

But as we reemerged at the front of
the block,

we were greeted by a local delegation.

Somehow, the mayor and police
had been alerted to our presence.

They claimed that the story about Edic
was a lie and demanded we stop filming.

She knows this woman, she saying
that everything that she

was told about this family is totally
wrong

and that's why you shouldn't film
anything here.

It was clear that something had
happened here,

but with the mayor and police's
vigorous denials,

it was far from certain exactly what.

However, as we were leaving the town,
James was approached by a local woman

who clearly recognized both Edic
and Nadia.

Despite the police's intervention,
she was determined to tell him

what she had seen when the children
lived in the town.

It was horrible conditions,
she never come in her flat.

There was fish, there was fish on
the floor, and the dogs living there

and just the conditions was absolutely
awful.

We have heard stories that the children
used to play a lot with the dogs

with the animals around the flats.

(Speaking Ukrainian)

She's saying that...she's saying that yes,
the children were good friends

of the local dogs and home, and stray
dogs use to come live in their flat.

There were always not less then three
dogs in their flat

and Edic was sleeping with them.

But could a young child really
live with dogs?

And if they could, how would this
incredible relationship work?

Animal expert Steve Fryer has worked
with dogs for over 20 years

and studied their very special bond
with man.

The relationship between domesticated
dogs and humans is really very special

and it's almost a primeval, urgent
feelings that we get about dogs,

and I'm sure they have about us
because they've been around us

for so many thousands of years and

it's been passed on through generation
after generation.

But how would he explain Edic's
incredible story?

I believe food was the issue and the dogs
were coming into the warmth and security

of the apartment and getting
regular food or irregular food.

So, they must have seen this young child
as a provider for the pack

and perhaps pushed his status up
much higher than if he had just been

a three-year-old child running
around with them.

Dogs are very quick to learn to
seize on an opportunity.

So, if there's free food source,
then it would be a very big bonus

in their thinking capacity for, for,
towards this child.

Edic, it seems, was lucky.

By offering the dogs food and shelter,
he in return

received the warmth and and companionship
that probably saved his life.

But after only two years with the dogs,
he had suffered serious consequences.

But what of Oxana?

She is now 19, but spent almost
six years living in a kennel.

She was found at eight,
almost the same age as Victor.

Would she ever be able to talk,
or would she, like Victor and

Genie before her, be condemned
to a life of silence?

[music]

Oxana is now 19 and lives miles
from the nearest town

in a home for the mentally ill.

When she was discovered at eight,
she couldn't even talk.

According to brain theory, Oxana would
have only three or four years

to learn language before she lost
the chance forever.

In this short time, Oxana made it.

She can now talk in simple sentences,
but she is haunted

by the memories of her terrible
past, and even now,

as this footage shows, she can still
revert to her old behavior.

[barking, howling]

My mom wanted to have a boy and
she had a girl instead,

and so she just threw me out and
put me into the kennels.

When I was small, the dogs would
breast feed me,

and later they brought me,
like when I was bigger,

they brought me what people gave them,
and they shared it with me.

I wasn't scared of them at all, it was
my home.

So what does the future hold for
Oxana?

The only thing we can do is to try
and correct her behavior

so she gets use to living in a human
society.

The best way to do it is to try and find
a proper occupation for her,

and it will focus her mind from dogs and
animals to some sort of useful occupation,

but she will never be
considered a normal person.

[piano music]

Found at eight, Oxana has
made amazing progress,

but like Victor and Genie before her,
it seems that her development

has come some way but will now
go no further.

[piano music]

But what about Edic, what does
his future hold?

The earlier children are identified
and something can be done about it,

even if it's just stabilizing their
environment,

the better it is for those children.

My sense is that the fact that he
was identified when he was four

is going to stand him in good state.

Linguistically, Edic's future looks
encouraging.

And what you're seeing in Edic is a,
a really substantial number of

words that he's now acquired over a,
relatively short period of time.

We're also, seeing his grammar
developing and it seems to be

developing more slowly,
but of course it always does

develop more slowly, and then
it would, it'll really take off.

I'm assuming that in the next
year or so that we, we would have a,

what they call a grammar burst,
where you get a massive number

of new structures and it looks to me
as if Edic is doing that on his own

without instruction.

And one would take that to be a very
positive sign.

But socially, he's likely to find things
more difficult.

In Edic's case, we probably have an
example of a child who

orientates towards the dogs because
being with them was actually

to his advantage.

I think it's impossible to underestimate
the impact that this could

have in the long term.

Do we observe him in the orphanage?

You see, he attaches to almost anybody
indiscriminately,

and what is likely to happen is that

he's gonna be vulnerable socially
and I think his personal development

is what I would be most concerned about.

Edic is likely to suffer the consequences

of his early experiences for
many years to come.

But it would be wrong to see
feral children simply as hopeless.

[piano music]

We should look at these children not
with pity but with awe.

I mean, they're just, it's fascinating
that

you can go through something like
that

and that you would still be willing,
after what human beings have done to you,

that you'd still be willing to put your
hand out and touch a new person.

Faced with almost unimaginable situations,
feral children have come up

with the best strategies they could to
survive.

And for the last 200 years,

science has tried to understand the
mysteries they pose.

With Victor, Itard made the first steps,

a process that continued with Susan
Curtis's work with Genie,

and goes on right up
to today

with evaluations of children like
Oxana and Edic.

We are continuing to learn more and
more about how to help these children

and more and more about how
these

neglectful experiences influence
their brain,

but we're just on the very very very
cusp of being able to be helpful.

Because today, we haven't done a very
good job of that,

we just haven't understood the brain
and brain development in ways

that would allow us to be as
good as we can be,

and I think that that's changing.

And as we look to the future,
one thing is certain.

The story of feral children is far
from over.

I think there always will be stories
like this.

Really, as long as adults you know,
abandoning children,

leaving them to their own devices.

As long as, really, adult cruelty goes on,
then there will be feral children.