GenieThe Wild Child

             Genie was considered to be beautiful, fragile, and wild. She was born in April of 1957 in Los Angeles where she lived the first 13 years of her life tied to a potty chair, abused and lonely. She could not talk, walk, or even chew. Her arms and legs did not extend fully and she had vision to a distance of only 12 feet. Genie was considered a "wild child."
             There is a great deal of evidence from the case that supports the nature and nurture theories of language development. Noam Chomsky once declared that we acquire language because it is in our genes, and that we are born with the principle of language. He suggested that we are born with an innate Language Acquisition Device, which is a mental program for how to deal with language. It provides infants with rules of grammar and semantics. Unlike Chomsky, Skinner believed in the nurture theory. He believed that we can explain language development with familiar learning principles, such as association, imitation, and reinforcement. Lenneberg combined both theories together. He agreed with Chomsky but stated that there is a deadline for acquiring language, or a "critical period" in a child 's life. This critical period occurs around the same time as puberty, at about the age of 12-13. If a child has not been taught to speak by this "period" it will never pass the 2-3 word telegraphic stage. Lenneberg had two different versions of his theory, a strong version and a weak version. The strong version stated that language will not and can not be achieved after puberty. The weak version said that language will not be achieved normally after puberty. Genie is a good example of the weak version of language development. She achieved telegraphic speech , but nothing more. She had a large vocabulary and could understand words but she could never properly learn grammar. Sentence structures, WH words, tense reflec
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GenieThe Wild Child. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 21:17, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/46372.html