Autism and feral children

Post Reply New Topic

I don't agree with this article, but I do agree with the response below it..

http://www.feralchildren.com/en/autism.php

I think the point of that page is to debunk the association, which is certain to be tempting to anybody studying feral children. The first article is obviously a desperate attempt to imagine a connection, and the response reads like "wtf are you talking about?"

I think, if there is a connection at all, it could go in 2 possible directions:

1) the children developed autistic-like traits because of their lack of contact with other humans (as it has been proven that interaction with others is necessary for certain skills to develop, and that there is, for some skills (notably some of the grammar aspects of language) a "window" of age in which they can be developed, and after a certain level of brain development they cannot be developed any more... of course, that age/level may differ between NT and non-NT children...)

2) the reason the kids were abandoned by their parents in the wilderness in the first place is because they were autistic or otherwise disabled and that was considered "intolerable" in their society.

to be honest, i lean more towards option 2 being the more likely in most cases...

I saw Genie in a documentary on TV, her behaviors (stimming, lack of eye contact, mutism, attachment to an object she had to carried around everywhere etc.) were all very autistic.

Her family were told when she was very young that she was developmentally delayed (autistic?) and possibly ret*d. Her father was a recluse, he was very controlling and lacked empathy (I wonder if he had undiagnosed AS). Her father (thinking in black/white terms) took the doctors words to the extreme, and he decided to lock Genie in a room on her own, where she stayed for 13 years. She had almost no contact with the rest of her family. She only had a tiny window, she could just peak put out and see some sky.

IMHO, Genie is autistic and her condition was made worse by her confinement (much like many institutionalized/abused autistics at the time, in the 1960s).

Knowing the true nature of Genie's condition is very important. It is because of Genie, that scientists say humans cannot learn to speak, if they have not learned laguage before the age of 10. But Genie maybe an autistic woman. In fact, there are now several cases of (NT) children rescued from terrible conditions after the the age of 10 (like what Genie experienced) who have learned to speak.

Also, I read Uta Frith's book, Autism - Explaining the Enigma. Her study is an excellent investigation of the connection between feral children and autism. She made a very good case that Victor (and not Caspar Hauser was) autistic. Only Caspar Hauser developed into an apparently normal young man following education, after he was rescued. Caspar learned to speak; in fact, he eventually learned to read/write and had very good manners (though he was a little shy). Caspar even attended the Opera!

But Victor, despite the best efforts of his teachers (and just like Genie), made no progress at all. He would grab the hand of he carer and drag him to a pot of food, make a few guttural noises to indicate he wanted to be fed. He never learned to speak.

The contrast between Victor and Genie (autistic / hard-wired) and Caspar (NT Oprah buff / nurture) was huge. Uta Frith said that Victor's condition did not change because he had a in born disability (autism), unlike Caspar, who's condition was caused by nurture, which improved remarkably when he was rescued.

I don't agree with the article at all.

very interesting, diamond dave. i was actually reading up on genie yesterday. so sad.