case study of genie wiley

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The Story of Genie Wiley

What her tragic story revealed about language and development

Who Was Genie Wiley?

Why was the genie wiley case so famous, did genie learn to speak, ethical concerns.

While there have been a number of cases of feral children raised in social isolation with little or no human contact, few have captured public and scientific attention, like that of Genie Wiley.

Genie spent almost her entire childhood locked in a bedroom, isolated, and abused for over a decade. Her case was one of the first to put the critical period theory to the test. Could a child reared in utter deprivation and isolation develop language? Could a nurturing environment make up for a horrifying past?

In order to understand Genie's story, it is important to look at what is known about her early life, the discovery of the abuse she had endured, and the subsequent efforts to treat and study her.

Early Life (1957-1970)

Genie's life prior to her discovery was one of utter deprivation. She spent most of her days tied naked to a potty chair, only able to move her hands and feet. When she made noise, her father would beat her. The rare times her father did interact with her, it was to bark or growl. Genie Wiley's brother, who was five years older than Genie, also suffered abuse under their father.

Discovery and Study (1970-1975)

Genie's story came to light on November 4, 1970, in Los Angeles, California. A social worker discovered the 13-year old girl after her mother sought out services for her own health. The social worker soon discovered that the girl had been confined to a small room, and an investigation by authorities quickly revealed that the child had spent most of her life in this room, often tied to a potty chair.

A Genie Wiley documentary was made in 1997 called "Secrets of the Wild Child." In it, Susan Curtiss, PhD, a linguist and researcher who worked with Genie, explained that the name Genie was used in case files to protect the girl's identity and privacy.

The case name is Genie. This is not the person's real name, but when we think about what a genie is, a genie is a creature that comes out of a bottle or whatever but emerges into human society past childhood. We assume that it really isn't a creature that had a human childhood.

Both parents were charged with abuse , but Genie's father died by suicide the day before he was due to appear in court, leaving behind a note stating that "the world will never understand."

The story of Genie's case soon spread, drawing attention from both the public and the scientific community. The case was important, said psycholinguist and author Harlan Lane, PhD, because "our morality doesn’t allow us to conduct deprivation experiments with human beings; these unfortunate people are all we have to go on."

With so much interest in her case, the question became what should be done to help her. A team of psychologists and language experts began the process of rehabilitating Genie.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) provided funding for scientific research on Genie’s case. Psychologist David Rigler, PhD, was part of the "Genie team" and he explained the process.

I think everybody who came in contact with her was attracted to her. She had a quality of somehow connecting with people, which developed more and more but was present, really, from the start. She had a way of reaching out without saying anything, but just somehow by the kind of look in her eyes, and people wanted to do things for her.

Genie's rehabilitation team also included graduate student Susan Curtiss and psychologist James Kent. Upon her initial arrival at UCLA, Genie weighed just 59 pounds and moved with a strange "bunny walk." She often spat and was unable to straighten her arms and legs. Silent, incontinent, and unable to chew, she initially seemed only able to recognize her own name and the word "sorry."

After assessing Genie's emotional and cognitive abilities, Kent described her as "the most profoundly damaged child I've ever seen … Genie's life is a wasteland." Her silence and inability to use language made it difficult to assess her mental abilities, but on tests, she scored at about the level of a 1-year-old.

Genie Wiley's Rehabilitation and the Forbidden Experiment

She soon began to rapidly progress in specific areas, quickly learning how to use the toilet and dress herself. Over the next few months, she began to experience more developmental progress but remained poor in areas such as language. She enjoyed going out on day trips outside of the hospital and explored her new environment with an intensity that amazed her caregivers and strangers alike.

Curtiss suggested that Genie had a strong ability to communicate nonverbally , often receiving gifts from total strangers who seemed to understand the young girl's powerful need to explore the world around her.

Psychiatrist Jay Shurley, MD, helped assess Genie after she was first discovered, and he noted that since situations like hers were so rare, she quickly became the center of a battle between the researchers involved in her case. Arguments over the research and the course of her treatment soon erupted. Genie occasionally spent the night at the home of Jean Butler, one of her teachers.

After an outbreak of measles, Genie was quarantined at her teacher's home. Butler soon became protective and began restricting access to Genie. Other members of the team felt that Butler's goal was to become famous from the case, at one point claiming that Butler had called herself the next Anne Sullivan, the teacher famous for helping Helen Keller learn to communicate.  

Genie was partially treated like an asset and an opportunity for recognition, significantly interfering with their roles, and the researchers fought with each other for access to their perceived power source.

Eventually, Genie was removed from Butler's care and went to live in the home of psychologist David Rigler, where she remained for the next four years. Despite some difficulties, she appeared to do well in the Rigler household. She enjoyed listening to classical music on the piano and loved to draw, often finding it easier to communicate through drawing than through other methods.

After Genie was discovered, a group of researchers began the process of rehabilitation. However, this work also coincided with research to study her ability to acquire and use language. These two interests led to conflicts in her treatment and between the researchers and therapists working on her case.

State Custody (1975-Present)

NIMH withdrew funding in 1974, due to the lack of scientific findings. Linguist Susan Curtiss had found that while Genie could use words, she could not produce grammar. She could not arrange these words in a meaningful way, supporting the idea of a critical period in language development.

Rigler's research was disorganized and largely anecdotal. Without funds to continue the research and care for Genie, she was moved from the Riglers' care.

In 1975, Genie returned to live with her birth mother. When her mother found the task too difficult, Genie was moved through a series of foster homes, where she was often subjected to further abuse and neglect .

Genie’s situation continued to worsen. After spending a significant amount of time in foster homes, she returned to Children’s Hospital. Unfortunately, the progress that had occurred during her first stay had been severely compromised by the subsequent treatment she received in foster care. Genie was afraid to open her mouth and had regressed back into silence.

Genie’s birth mother then sued the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and the research team, charging them with excessive testing. While the lawsuit was eventually settled, it raised important questions about the treatment and care of Genie. Did the research interfere with the girl's therapeutic treatment?

Psychiatrist Jay Shurley visited her on her 27th and 29th birthdays and characterized her as largely silent, depressed , and chronically institutionalized. Little is known about Genie's present condition, although an anonymous individual hired a private investigator to track her down in 2000 and described her as happy. But this contrasts with other reports.

Genie Wiley Today

Today, Genie Wiley's whereabouts are unknown; though, if she is still living, she is presumed to be a ward of the state of California, living in an adult care home. As of 2024, Genie would be 66-67 years old.

Part of the reason why Genie's case fascinated psychologists and linguists so deeply was that it presented a unique opportunity to study a hotly contested debate about language development.

Essentially, it boils down to the age-old nature versus nurture debate. Does genetics or environment play a greater role in the development of language?

Nativists believe that the capacity for language is innate, while empiricists suggest that environmental variables play a key role. Nativist Noam Chomsky suggested that acquiring language could not be fully explained by learning alone.

Instead, Chomsky proposed that children are born with a language acquisition device (LAD), an innate ability to understand the principles of language. Once exposed to language, the LAD allows children to learn the language at a remarkable pace.

Critical Periods

Linguist Eric Lenneberg suggests that like many other human behaviors, the ability to acquire language is subject to critical periods. A critical period is a limited span of time during which an organism is sensitive to external stimuli and capable of acquiring certain skills.

According to Lenneberg, the critical period for language acquisition lasts until around age 12. After the onset of puberty, he argued, the organization of the brain becomes set and no longer able to learn and use language in a fully functional manner.

Genie's case presented researchers with a unique opportunity. If given an enriched learning environment, could she overcome her deprived childhood and learn language even though she had missed the critical period?

If Genie could learn language, it would suggest that the critical period hypothesis of language development was wrong. If she could not, it would indicate that Lenneberg's theory was correct.

Despite scoring at the level of a 1-year-old upon her initial assessment, Genie quickly began adding new words to her vocabulary. She started by learning single words and eventually began putting two words together much the way young children do. Curtiss began to feel that Genie would be fully capable of acquiring language.

After a year of treatment, Genie started putting three words together occasionally. In children going through normal language development, this stage is followed by what is known as a language explosion. Children rapidly acquire new words and begin putting them together in novel ways.

Unfortunately, this never happened for Genie. Her language abilities remained stuck at this stage and she appeared unable to apply grammatical rules and use language in a meaningful way. At this point, her progress leveled off and her acquisition of new language halted.

While Genie was able to learn some language after puberty, her inability to use grammar (which Chomsky suggests is what separates human language from animal communication) offers evidence for the critical period hypothesis.

Of course, Genie's case is not so simple. Not only did she miss the critical period for learning language, but she was also horrifically abused. She was malnourished and deprived of cognitive stimulation for most of her childhood.

Researchers were also never able to fully determine if Genie had any pre-existing cognitive deficits. As an infant, a pediatrician had identified her as having some type of mental delay. So researchers were left to wonder whether Genie had experienced cognitive deficits caused by her years of abuse or if she had been born with some degree of intellectual disability.

There are many ethical concerns surrounding Genie's story. Arguments among those in charge of Genie's care and rehabilitation reflect some of these concerns.

"If you want to do rigorous science, then Genie's interests are going to come second some of the time. If you only care about helping Genie, then you wouldn't do a lot of the scientific research," suggested psycholinguist Harlan Lane in the NOVA documentary focused on her life.

In Genie's case, some of the researchers held multiple roles of caretaker-teacher-researcher-housemate. which, by modern standards, we would deem unethical. For example, the Riglers benefitted financially by taking Genie in (David received a large grant and was released from certain duties at the children's hospital without loss of pay). Butler also played a role in removing Genie from the Riglers' home, filing multiple complaints against him.

While Genie's story may be studied for its implications in our understanding of language acquisition and development, it is also a case that will continue to be studied over its serious ethical issues.

"I think future generations are going to study Genie's case not only for what it can teach us about human development but also for what it can teach us about the rewards and the risks of conducting 'the forbidden experiment,'" Lane explained.

Bottom Line

Genie Wiley's story perhaps leaves us with more questions than answers. Though it was difficult for Genie to learn language, she was able to communicate through body language, music, and art once she was in a safe home environment. Unfortunately, we don't know what her progress could have been had adequate care not been taken away from her.

Ultimately, her case is so important for the psychology and research field because we must learn from this experience not to revictimize and exploit the very people we set out to help. This is an important lesson because Genie's original abuse by her parents was perpetuated by the neglect and abandonment she faced later in her life. We must always strive to maintain objectivity and consider the best interest of the subject before our own.

Frequently Asked Questions

Genie, now in her 60s, is believed to be living in an adult care facility in California. Efforts by journalists to learn more about her location and current condition have been rejected by authorities due to confidentiality rules. Curtiss has also reported attempting to contact Genie without success.

Along with her husband, Irene Wiley was charged with abuse, but these charges were eventually dropped. Irene was blind and reportedly mentally ill, so it is believed that Genie's father was the child's primary caretaker. Genie's father, Clark Wiley, also abused his wife and other children. Two of the couple's children died in infancy under suspicious circumstances.

Genie's story suggests that the acquisition of language has a critical period of development. Her case is complex, however, since it is unclear if her language deficits were due to deprivation or if there was an underlying mental disability that played a role. The severe abuse she experienced may have also affected her mental development and language acquisition.

Collection of research materials related to linguistic-psychological studies of Genie (pseudonym) (collection 800) . UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Schoneberger T. Three myths from the language acquisition literature . Anal Verbal Behav. 2010;26(1):107–131. doi:10.1007/bf03393086

APA Dictionary of Psychology. Language acquisition device . American Psychological Association.

Vanhove J. The critical period hypothesis in second language acquisition: A statistical critique and a reanalysis .  PLoS One . 2013;8(7):e69172. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069172

Carroll R. Starved, tortured, forgotten: Genie, the feral child who left a mark on researchers . The Guardian .

James SD. Raised by a tyrant, suffering a sibling's abuse . ABC News .

  NOVA . The secret of the wild child [transcript]. PBS,

Pines M. The civilizing of Genie. In: Kasper LF, ed., Teaching English Through the Disciplines: Psychology . Whittier.

Rolls G.  Classic Case Studies in Psychology (2nd ed.). Hodder Arnold.

Rymer R. Genie: A Scientific Tragedy.  Harper-Collins.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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Genie (born April 18, 1957, Los Angeles , California , U.S.) was an American child raised in social isolation and subject to severe abuse and neglect prior to being discovered by a social worker in 1970. The child, called Genie by scientists to protect her identity, was physically underdeveloped, incontinent, barely able to walk, and unable to speak when she was discovered. Genie became the focus of a study about aspects of human development conducted by a team of psychologists and linguists.

For the first 13 years of her life, Genie was kept restrained in a small room with curtained windows and a closed door. During the day, she was harnessed naked to a toilet seat, and at night she was straitjacketed and enclosed in a covered crib with wire-mesh sides. Because her father, Clark Wiley, disliked noise, he would beat her if she made any, and he never spoke to her—only growled and made barking sounds. This was thought to have contributed to her extreme fear of dogs and cats. Her mother, Irene Wiley, diagnosed with cataracts and nearly blind, was allowed very limited interactions with Genie. Her elder brother, who was terrified of their father, became Genie’s caretaker, feeding her only baby food, cereal, and milk, which he did without talking to her, per their father’s instructions.

In 1970, while Genie’s father was out shopping for groceries, her mother took Genie to what she thought was a blindness disability benefits office. Instead, they walked into a social services office, where a social worker immediately noticed Genie’s condition and odd gait , which mimicked a rabbit’s hopping. Genie’s parents were arrested and charged with abuse. The charges against Irene Wiley were dismissed in 1975 after her attorney argued that she too was a victim of her husband’s abuse and had never been willfully cruel to Genie. Clark Wiley died by suicide shortly before he was scheduled to appear in court. Meanwhile, Genie was admitted to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on November 4, 1970.

The discovery of Genie presented a unique and timely opportunity for scientists to study whether a deprived and isolated child could mentally develop when provided an enhanced learning environment . The opportunity was unique because it would violate ethical norms for scientists to deliberately deprive a child of basic necessities in the name of research. Her discovery was timely as well, as it came in the midst of a debate over neuropsychologist Eric Lenneberg’s “critical period” hypothesis of language acquisition. His hypothesis was based on linguist Noam Chomsky ’s innateness theory, which postulated that all humans are born with a preprogrammed sense of grammar . Lenneberg suggested that if grammar was not acquired in the “critical period” before puberty , much of this preprogrammed sense of grammar would be lost, and language could only be acquired after this point with great difficulty.

In 1971 hospital staff involved in Genie’s case applied for and received a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) grant to fund scientific research on her and support her rehabilitation. A team led by psychologist David Rigler and including psychologist James Kent , linguist Victoria Fromkin, and linguistics graduate student Susan Curtiss was assembled to conduct the study and document Genie’s progress. One of the focal points of the study was to prove or disprove the critical period hypothesis of language acquisition.

Working with the team, Genie progressed quickly with her basic skills and was able to dress herself and use a toilet, but, although she was strong in nonverbal communication skills, she did not progress as quickly with her language skills. She had an inquisitive nature and learned and recognized many new words but spoke only single words for the first several months of her rehabilitation. She gradually began to utter two-word phrases, including, “little marble,” “big teeth,” and “want milk,” and by November 1971 she was occasionally stringing three words together. Despite efforts to teach them to her, she never understood grammatical principles .

Genie lived with multiple researchers during the study, raising questions about the balance between research and rehabilitation. Notably, she was fostered by lead researcher Rigler and his wife, Marilyn, from 1971 through 1975.

The study shed crucial light on the critical period hypothesis of language acquisition, but, because of problems with data collection, NIMH withdrew funding for research into Genie’s abilities in 1974. In 1975 Irene Wiley sued the scientists and hospital staff for overtaxing Genie with their testing practices. Researchers disputed the claim, saying that they had never pushed Genie to an unhealthy extent. Genie returned to live with Wiley in 1975, but she proved to be unable to care for her. Genie was moved to various foster homes, leading to a great deal of regression in her language abilities, especially after again facing abuse and mistreatment, this time as a ward of the state.

As of 2023, there is no public record of whether Genie is still alive, and if she is, where she is living. If she were alive, she would be 66 years old. A private investigation conducted in 2000 reportedly revealed that Genie was living in an adult care facility with subpar conditions but described her as being happy. The story of Genie’s childhood and the NIMH-funded study about her is the topic of the documentary Secret of the Wild Child (1994) and the book Genie: A Scientific Tragedy (1993) by author and journalist Russ Rymer.

Genie – The Feral Child

What do you think of when you hear the words, “feral child?” You might have come across a feral cat or feral dog at a shelter, but feral children are not anywhere near as common. They seem to only exist in stories, like The Jungle Book or Tarzan. You might be surprised to learn that not all feral children are raised in the wilderness by wolves or gorillas. Some modern cases of feral children, like the case of Genie, are still alive today. Genie’s story is one of mental health, forbidden experiments, and the failures of society to protect people who have been left behind.

Who Is Genie?

Genie was a child who was born healthy, but raised in an environment with severe neglect and abuse. Due to this, she was unable to learn how to speak and function in society. Genie is used as an example of feral child syndrome and has been studied in developmental psychology. 

Feral children may grow up in the wilderness, completely abandoned by their parents. They may also grow up in a home, like Genie did. Genie, born Susan Wiley, was born in April 1957 to parents Clark and Dorothy Wiley. Dorothy was 90% blind, and had migrated to California from Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl. Clark was the son of a brother owner, who had been bounced around from foster home to foster home his whole life.

Genie was born at a healthy weight and height. She had a five-year-old brother with allegedly no developmental disabilities. In her infancy, Genie appeared fairly normal. She was, however, diagnosed with a congenital hip dislocation. The issue resulted in Genie wearing a splint through her infancy and delays in walking. At the time, Genie’s father Clark believed that his child had mental disabilities, along with physical. Many psychologists believe that Clark felt that he had to protect Genie, partially explaining his horrific behavior later in Genie’s life. Others believe that Clark was delusional, spurred by intense feelings of rage and grief after the death of Clark’s mother. At 20 months old, Genie’s family moved into Clark’s mother’s home, and Genie was shielded from the world for the next 12 years.

(Her childhood home is featured on this Reddit post .)

Severe Neglect and Abuse

This isolation is what made Genie a “feral child.” During the day, Clark strapped Genie to a child’s toilet with a diaper and DIY straightjacket. At night, Genie was confined to a crib, bound by wires.

She failed to develop language, partially because she never attended formal education, but also partially because her father would growl and bark at Genie like a dog. If Genie (or any member of the family) were to make any sort of noise or fuss, Clark would beat them with a plank. Although Genie’s mother claimed that Clark would feed Genie three square meals a day, these meals consisted of baby food. Clark would spoon-feed Genie, sometimes rubbing her face in the food.

Clark ran his household like a cult, and was extremely paranoid. He continued to threaten his wife, and only allowed his son to leave the house to go to school. When his son came back to the house, he had to identify himself in various ways to be let in. Clark would sit in the living room with his shotgun on his lap, sometimes falling asleep in front of the front door with said shotgun.

When Genie’s brother was 18, he ran away from home. That year, Genie and her mother were allowed out of the house after a huge fight with Clark. Genie’s mother brought Genie into what she thought was a state office to apply for disabilities. Her near-blindness led her to the state social services office. Upon seeing Genie, who was severely malnourished and had a strange “bunny walk” (with her hands poised at her chest like a bunny,) employees thought that the girl was 6 or 7 - she was almost 14. Genie was taken into protective care and her parents were arrested.

Clark committed suicide before he could go to court and face his crimes. All charges against Genie’s mother were dropped after she cited that the abuse she suffered from Clark prevented her from being able to care for Genie. Her case made national headlines, and because she was a minor, her true name was never used in stories. Instead of Susan Wiley, the “Wild Child” became known as “Genie.”

Studies on Language Acquisition

One distinct feature of feral children is that they never develop a first language. Genie could only understand a handful of words when she first examined at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Her ability to speak was limited further. Eerily, the two phrases linguists recorded her saying were “no more” and “stop it.”

Genie became infamous not only because her case was one of the most horrific incidents of child abuse in modern history, but also because her situation was known to psychologists as a “forbidden experiment.” At the time that Genie was rescued from her parents, Noam Chomsky’s theory of innateness was popular in the linguistic psychology world. Chomsky believed that humans have an innate ability to acquire language. His theory of universal grammar appeared to support the idea that language is wired into our brains. Think nature, rather than nurture.

This theory can be supported to a degree, but experts could not prove universal grammar or innate language acquisition through experiments with children. Isolating one child from language for the sake of a psychological study, much less enough children to prove the theory, is highly unethical. Genie provided researchers a unique chance to look at the way that language is developed or stunted due to nature or nurture. From the moment that Genie was rescued, she was examined. An entire team of researchers visited her for years, sometimes on a daily basis. They monitored her brain activity, observing that she had an estimated mental age of a 5- to 8-year-old. Her linguistic development was that of a 1- or 2-year-old. She exhibited bizarre behaviors, some that could be explained by her childhood and others that appeared to have no explanation. Many questions, including that of whether she really had a mental disability like her father suggested, have gone unanswered.

This is partially due to the custody battles and ethical questions that went on throughout Genie’s later teenage years. The first “foster home” that Genie had was the home of her special education teacher, Jean Butler. Butler butted heads with the scientists who were observing Genie throughout her teenage years. Some questioned Butler’s intentions, even recalling Butler saying that Genie could make Butler “the next Anne Sullivan.” (Anne Sullivan is known for being Helen Keller’s teacher. Their story has been told in countless movies.)

David Rigler, the chief psychologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, took custody of her next. He observed her behavior and worked with her for many years. During this time, she was able to learn some sign language and communicate through drawings. But her foster care with David Rigler ended at the age of 18. Throughout her teens, Genie had been in contact with her mother. At 18, she moved back in with her mother. Genie’s father was dead, but living with her mother was not the happy ending that anyone would have hoped for. Within a year, Genie’s mother sued many of the researchers involved in Genie’s case. She claimed that the researchers had crossed boundaries, breached confidentiality agreements, and overworked Genie. The next year, her mother forbade any of the research team from interacting with or studying Genie. But she also relinquished care of Genie, leaving her to be bounced around from foster home to foster home. When the researchers did try to reach out or find Genie, they were often disappointed to hear that she was not making the progress that she had been making as a teenager.

Where Is Genie Now?

Genie is only in her 60s now. She remains a ward of the state, and has not been in direct contact with the researchers that studied and took care of her after her rescue. Investigators who looked into her well-being reported back that she was happy, and although she didn’t use much verbal communication, she did take to sign language.

Still Many Questions to Be Answered

When Genie was rescued in the 1970s, researchers jumped at the opportunity to work with a “forbidden experiment.” Their passion for the research, and their eventual attachment and care for Genie, ultimately ended in unfinished work and estrangement from Genie. To this day, one researcher has repeatedly tried to make contact with her. Many researchers were drawn to Genie’s charisma, despite her being nonverbal and developmentally delayed due to severe childhood trauma.

What does Genie’s case say about innate language acquisition? It depends on who you ask. Some say that her case is evidence for innate language acquisitions . Others argue that the case supports the critical-period hypothesis, which argues that we can “tap into” our innate ability to acquire language, but only during a specific period of development.

Nature vs. Nurture

What about nature vs. nurture ? The jury is out on this one, too. Although the cruelty and trauma endured by Genie undoubtedly slowed her development, other research argues that her developmental disabilities were also due to her genetic makeup. If she did have mental and developmental disabilities, like her father believed as an infant, the impact of his cruelty would be a less prominent factor in her delays.

Genie is far from the only case of recent feral children, but is one of the most infamous. Her case also shows that issues of ethics and great debates in psychology are more blurry than they appear on paper.

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The Feral Child Nicknamed Genie

Sad case of child abuse sheds light on language production versus comprehension..

Posted July 10, 2017 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

Genie was born to deranged parents. Her father was extremely intolerant of loud noises and didn't want children, but he and his wife ended up having babies. Lots of them. Most of them died from child neglect. Genie was one of few who survived.

Because of her father's sensitivity to noice and lack of care for others, Genie spent the first 13 years of her life strapped to a potty or a chair in a homemade straightjacket. If she made any noise whatsoever, her dad would beat her with a baseball bat. She was never spoken to. She was a true feral child.

When Child Protective Services finally intervened, Genie had virtually no physical abilities beyond those of a toddler. She was severely underweight and couldn't speak.

Linguist Susan Curtiss befriended her and attempted to teach her language and challenge her mental abilities. Susan Curtiss quickly learned that Genie was highly intelligent. She was able to tell sophisticated stories, not in words, but in pictures. Using pictures, she could tell intricate narratives.

Susan Curtiss worked with Genie to teach her English. Genie soon developed a rather large lexicon and was able to express herself. But despite extensive training, she remained unable to produce grammatical sentences. Here is a transcript of one of her reports of her time in the hands of her father:

Father hit arm. Big wood. Genie cry ... Not spit. Father. Hit face—spit ... Father hit big stick. Father angry. Father hit Genie big stick. Father take piece wood hit. Cry. Me cry.

Despite the tragedy that surrounds the case of Genie, her case teaches us an important lesson about language abilities. Telling a story (not necessarily in a grammatical way or even by using words) as well as understanding language are very different from being able to produce grammatical sentences in a language.

The language areas of the brain are actually divided between Wernicke's area and Broca's area (among other important language facilitating areas). Wernicke's area sits on the left side of the head (just above the ear) in the temporal lope, whereas the Broca area is located at the beginning of the frontal part of the brain (a bit further front). Wernicke's area is responsible for understanding speech and other communicative signals, whereas Broca's area is mainly in charge of producing grammatical sentences (alongside the motor area, which is needed to express what you want to say verbally—using lip movement and gestures, for instance).

The case of Genie confirms that there is a certain window of opportunity that sets the limit for when you can become relatively fluent in a language. Of course, if you already are fluent in another language, the brain is already primed for language acquisition and you may well succeed in becoming fluent in a second or third language. If you have no experience with grammar, however, Broca's area remains relatively hard to change: you cannot learn grammatical language production later on in life. But the abilities to understand language and produce language in ways that do not rely on grammar largely make use of Wernicke's area in the temporal lope. This area is capable of expanding and rewiring throughout life—even after the teen years. The case of Genie confirms this. Grammar was beyond reach for her. But language comprehension and storytelling were not.

The takeaway of this tragic case sits well with the established idea that Wernicke's area in the brain—the area for language comprehension—absorbs various languages and meaningful signals in a unified way, whereas the Broca area—the area of the brain that is in charge of grammatical speech production—stores native (or first) languages and (second) languages learned later in life in separate areas.

Berit "Brit" Brogaard is an author of The Superhuman Mind .

Berit Brogaard, D.M.Sci., Ph.D. , is a professor of philosophy and the Director of the Brogaard Lab for Multisensory Research at the University of Miami.

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Genie Wiley, the Feral Child

Tom Need / Getty Images

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• Ph.D., Psychology, Fielding Graduate University
• M.A., Psychology, Fielding Graduate University
• B.A., Film Studies, Cornell University

Genie Wiley (born April 1957) was a severely neglected and abused child who was discovered and taken into custody by authorities when she was 13 years old. While her circumstances until that point were undeniably tragic, they also presented an opportunity for psychologists, linguists, and other researchers to study psychosocial, emotional, and cognitive development in an individual who had suffered from severe social isolation and deprivation. In particular, the discovery of Genie presented an opportunity to study whether a child who was past the so-called "critical period" for language acquisition could learn to speak a first language.

Key Takeaways: Genie Wiley

• Genie Wiley was abused and neglected for over a decade until she was discovered in 1970 when she was 13 years old.
• Known as the feral child, Genie became an important subject of research. Of special interest was whether she could acquire language, as she was no longer within the "critical period" for language development.
• Genie's case presented an ethical dilemma between prioritizing her care or prioritizing research on her development.

Early Life and Discovery

The case of Genie Wiley came to light on November 4, 1970. Genie was discovered by a social worker when her mother, who was partially blind, went to apply for social services. Genie had been isolated in a small room starting at the age of 20 months until her discovery at 13 years and 9 months old. She spent most of her time naked and tied to a potty chair where she was given limited use of her hands and feet. She was completely cut off from any kind of stimulation. The windows were curtained and the door was kept closed. She was only fed cereal and baby food and wasn’t spoken to. Although she lived with her father, mother, and brother, her father and brother would only bark or growl at her and her mother was only permitted very brief interactions. Genie’s father was intolerant of noise, so no TV or radio was played in the house. If Genie made any noise, she was physically beaten.

Upon her discovery, Genie was admitted to Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles for evaluation. She was severely underdeveloped. She was thin and looked like a child of six or seven. She couldn’t stand up straight and could only walk with a hunched “bunny walk.” She was unable to chew, had trouble swallowing, and spat frequently. She was incontinent and mute. At first, the only words she recognized were her name and “sorry.” Testing shortly after she came to the hospital revealed that her social maturity and mental abilities were at the level of a one-year-old.

Genie didn’t walk at a normal age, so her father came to believe she was developmentally disabled. However, the researchers brought onto the case after Genie’s discovery found little evidence of this in her early history. It appeared she never suffered from brain damage, mental disability, or autism. Therefore, the impairments and developmental delays Genie exhibited upon being assessed were the result of the isolation and deprivation she was subjected to.

Both of Genie’s parents were charged with abuse , but Genie’s 70-year-old father committed suicide the day he was supposed to appear in court. The note he left said, “The world will never understand.”

The Rush to Research

Genie’s case drew media attention as well as great interest from the research community, which considered it a rare opportunity to discover whether it was possible for Genie to mentally develop after such severe deprivation. Researchers would never deliberately conduct deprivation experiments with people on moral grounds. So, Genie’s sad case was ripe for study. Genie was not the child’s real name, but the name given to the case in order to protect her privacy.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) provided funding for research and a team was assembled whose goal was to rehabilitate and study Genie’s progress. Genie soon learned basic social skills like using the toilet and dressing herself. She was fascinated by her environment and would study it intensely. She especially enjoyed visiting places outside the hospital. She was talented at nonverbal communication, but her ability to use language did not proceed rapidly. As a result, psychologist David Rigler decided to focus the research on Genie's language acquisition.

Language Acquisition

The discovery of Genie coincided with a debate about language acquisition in the scholarly community. Linguist Noam Chomsky, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claimed humans are born with an innate ability to develop language. He believed language isn’t acquired because we learn it, but because it’s part of our genetic inheritance. Then, neuropsychologist Eric Lenneberg added a caveat to Chomsky’s ideas. Lenneberg agreed that humans are born with the ability to develop language, but suggested that if a language wasn’t acquired by puberty, it might never be. Lenneberg’s proposal was called the “critical period hypothesis.” Yet, there was no ability to test the theory until Genie came along.

Within the first seven months after her discovery, Genie learned many new words . She had even begun to speak but only in single words. By July 1971, Genie could put two words together and by November she could put together three. Despite signs of progress, Genie never learned to ask questions and she didn’t seem to understand the rules of grammar.

After beginning to speak in two-word phrases, normal children experience a language “explosion” a few weeks later in which speech develops quickly. Genie never experienced such an explosion. Her speech seemed to plateau at creating two to three-word strings, despite four years of additional work and research with her.

Genie demonstrated that it’s possible for an individual to learn some language after the critical period. Yet, her inability to learn grammar, which Chomsky believed was key to human language, indicated that passing the critical period was detrimental to the complete acquisition of a first language.

Arguments and Ethical Considerations

During Genie’s treatment, there were disputes amongst the members of her team. In the early days after her discovery, she entered her first foster home with her teacher Jean Butler. Butler claimed she felt that Genie was being subject to too many tests and attempted to make changes to Genie’s treatment. She wouldn’t allow the linguist Susan Curtiss or the psychologist James Kent into her house to see Genie. Other team members claimed Butler thought she could become famous through her work with Genie and didn’t want anyone else to get credit. Butler’s application to become Genie’s permanent foster parent was rejected about a month later.

Psychologist David Rigler and his wife Marilyn stepped in and fostered Genie for the next four years. They continued to work with her and let others continue their research throughout that time. However, Genie left the Riglers’ home after NIMH stopped funding the project due to problems with data collection.

Throughout the four years in which Genie was being tested and studied, there was debate about whether she could be a research subject and a rehabilitation patient at the same time. The ethics of the situation were murky.

In 1975, Genie’s mother regained custody after being acquitted of all charges of child abuse. Genie’s care quickly became too much for her to handle, though, so Genie began to bounce from foster home to foster home. She was once again subjected to abuse in those homes. Soon, she stopped talking and refused to open her mouth entirely.

Meanwhile, Genie’s mother filed a lawsuit against Genie’s team and the Children's Hospital alleging that the researchers prioritized testing Genie over her welfare. She contended that they pushed Genie to the point of exhaustion. The case was eventually settled but the debate continues. Some believe the researchers exploited Genie, and therefore, didn’t help her as much as they could have. However, the researchers say they treated Genie to the best of their ability.

Historian and psychologist Harlan Lane points out that “there's an ethical dilemma in this kind of research. If you want to do rigorous science, then Genie's interests are going to come second some of the time. If you only care about helping Genie, then you wouldn't do a lot of the scientific research. So, what are you going to do?”

Genie Today

Genie is believed to be alive and living in an adult foster home as a ward of the state of California. While the linguist who worked with Genie, Susan Curtiss, has attempted to get in touch with her, she’s been repeatedly rebuffed. However, she said that when she calls the authorities, they inform her that Genie is well. Yet, when journalist Russ Rymer saw Genie at her 27 th birthday party, he painted a much bleaker picture. Similarly, psychiatrist Jay Shurley, who was at Genie’s 27 th and 29 th birthdays, claimed Genie was depressed and had withdrawn into herself.

• Cherry, Kendra. “Overview of Feral Child Genie Wiley.” Verywell Mind , 9 March 2019. https://www.verywellmind.com/genie-the-story-of-the-wild-child-2795241
• Pines, Maya. "The Civilizing of Genie." Teaching English Through the Disciplines: Psychology , edited by Loretta F. Kasper. Whittier Publications, 1997. http://kccesl.tripod.com/genie.html
• NOVA. "Secret of the Wild Child." PBS , 4 March, 1997. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2112gchild.html
• Fromkin, Victoria, Krashen, Stephen, Curtiss, Susan, Rigler, David, and Rigler, Marilyn. "The Development of Language in Genie: A Case of Language Acquisition Beyond the 'Critical Period'" Brain and Language , vol. 1, no. 1, 1974, pp. 81-107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0093-934X(74)90027-3
• Carroll, Rory. "Starved, Tortured, Forgotten: Genie, the Feral Child Who Left a Mark on Researchers." The Guardian , 14 July 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jul/14/genie-feral-child-los-angeles-researchers
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History Uncovered Episode 36: Genie Wiley, The ‘Feral Child’

In one of the most infamous cases of child abuse in modern American history, Genie Wiley was isolated and terrorized for 13 years before she was finally rescued from her father's horrifying clutches.

In October 1970, a woman walked into a Los Angeles welfare office with a child at her side. The woman had walked into the wrong room — she was looking for services for the blind — but the girl who was with her caught the welfare workers’ attention. They didn’t know it yet, but one of the worst victims of child abuse in U.S. history had just walked through their door.

The girl, who appeared to be seven or eight years old, was actually 13, but clearly malnourished and undersized. She had a fluttering, unfocused gaze, she couldn’t speak, and she walked only in a strange bunny hop.

Soon, authorities discovered that this girl — since given the alias Genie Wiley in case files — had spent most of her life up until that point bound and locked away in isolation, either chained to a training toilet or confined in a crib-like cage. From the time she was an infant, her father had subjected her to this severe abuse; meanwhile, her mother simply ignored it.

Wikimedia Commons Genie Wiley was returned to foster care after the research on her ended. She regressed in these environments and never regained speech.

Believing Genie to be mentally disabled, her father locked her away and forbade anyone from engaging with her in any way. He tied her naked to a potty chair or threw her into a crib covered with chicken wire. Genie’s father deprived her of stimulation or affection, beat her with a wooden board, and fed her only milk or Pablum, a processed cereal for babies.

After welfare workers rescued her, Genie became a case study for researchers at UCLA’s Children’s Hospital. They studied how the abuse had impacted her, attempted to see if she had the capability to learn and speak, and began to care deeply for this fragile teenager.

Eventually, Genie the “feral child” started to get better. She even started communicating in halting, choppy phrases about her abusive father, saying:

“Father hit arm. Big wood. Genie cry… Not spit. Father. Hit face — spit. Father hit big stick. Father is angry. Father hit Genie big stick. Father take piece wood hit. Cry. Father make me cry.”

But these years in the hands of researchers and doctors offered only a reprieve — not an escape — from the nightmare that was Genie’s life. Eventually, conflict would tear her care team apart and Genie would be sent to foster care, then to adult home care. Today, she’s a ward of the state of California, her whereabouts and condition unknown to the public.

Discover the full story behind the tragic life of Genie Wiley .

Learn more about the music used in our podcast. History Uncovered is part of the Airwave Media network . Learn more about your ad choices by visiting megaphone.fm/adchoices .

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Genie Wiley: A Story of Abuse, Rescue, and Lingering Questions

• by Psychologs Magazine
• January 9, 2024
• 5 minutes read

People who are passionate about the academic discipline of psychology will surely be aware of the multiple controversial experiments that have been conducted throughout its history. Most of these experiments had ethical and moral considerations. Some of the most infamous and unethical experiments that psychologists have ever designed and implemented include the Little Albert Experiment, Milgram’s Prison experiment etc.

Through this article, however, we are delving deep, not into an unethical experiment that was conducted by the pioneers of the discipline, but rather into the intricacies of a case study that turned eyes towards the fate of feral children. Genie Wiley was a feral child who was raised with no human contact and was forced to spend over a decade locked and abused in her bedroom and was later rescued. Hers became the first case to be used to test the critical period theory in developmental psychology. To understand her case, we need to delve deep into the nuances of her life story.

Read More: The Psychology Behind Morality

The Case of Genie Wiley

Genie’s existence before her discovery was one of complete deprivation. She spent the majority of her days strapped naked to a potty chair, only able to move her hands and feet. When she made a noise, her father beat her. Her father’s interactions with her were limited to barking or growling. Genie’s narrative was revealed on November 4, 1970, in Los Angeles, California. A social worker discovered the 13-year-old kid when her mother sought help for her health. The social worker discovered that the girl had been confined to a small room, and an investigation by authorities swiftly revealed that the youngster had spent the majority of her life in this room, often tied to a potty chair. Both of Genie’s parents were charged in court for abuse.

Read More: Understanding the Role of Psychiatric Social Workers

However, Genie’s father committed suicide the day before his scheduled court appearance, leaving behind a note that said, “The world will never understand.” The tale of Genie’s case quickly spread, gaining attention from both the general public and the scholarly world. Harlan Lane, PhD, who was an author and a renowned psycholinguist later quoted this case to be groundbreaking and highly significant for research in the discipline since “our morality does not allow us to conduct deprivation experiments on humans; these unfortunate people are all we have to go on.”

Read More: Suicide Awareness: Unveiling the Truth

Her State After Being Rescued

Her rehabilitation team noted that when Genie first arrived at UCLA, she weighed only 59 pounds and moved with a weird “bunny walk.” She spat frequently and was unable to straighten her arms and legs. She was silent, incontinent, and unable to eat at first, appearing to recognize only her name and the word “sorry.” They described Genie as “the most profoundly damaged child I’ve ever seen,” based on her emotional and cognitive capacities. “Genie’s life is a wasteland.”

Her quietness and inability to communicate made it difficult to judge her mental capacities, but on tests, she performed at the level of a one-year-old. She quickly progressed in certain areas, learning how to use the toilet and dress herself. Over the next three months, she made more developmental gains, but her verbal skills remained weak. She adored going on day outings outside of the hospital and exploring her new surroundings with the zeal that astounded her carers and outsiders alike. The theories of nativism and that of the earlier mentioned critical period come up into question as soon as we discuss Genie’s case. Nativism is a renowned theory in psychology that believes and propagates that language or the ability to handle language present in human beings is innate for every individual.

While various behaviourists, during those days of the discipline development claimed that language is learnt through the various proposed models of learning, nativists like Noam Chomsky, who was also a linguist, argued that acquiring language in human beings is an innate process, i.e., each person is born with a language acquisition device that would aid them completely in acquiring and using the language. Once the child at a young age is exposed to their mother tongue or any other language for that matter, the Language Acquisition Device that they are mentally equipped with would completely take over the process of language.

Linguist Eric Lenneberg contends that, like many other human behaviours, the ability to acquire language is subject to critical periods. A critical period is a limited period during which an organism is sensitive to external stimuli and capable of learning specific skills. According to Lenneberg, the key time for language acquisition lasts until approximately age 12. He argued that once puberty sets in, the brain’s organization becomes fixed, and it is no longer capable of learning and using language fully functionally. Despite scoring at the level of a one-year-old on her initial evaluation, Genie quickly expanded her vocabulary.

She began by memorizing individual words and gradually progressed to combining two words. Following a year of treatment, she began to form three-word sentences on occasion. In children undergoing normal language development, this stage is followed by a language explosion. Unfortunately, this never occurred to Genie. Her language skills were stalled at this point, and she appeared unable to apply grammatical principles or utilize language in a meaningful way. Her progress stalled at this time, and her learning of a new language came to an end. This provides great evidence for the propagation of critical period theory.

The National Institute of Mental Health which had earlier provided the funds to the rehabilitation team to conduct scientific research to comprehend the linguistic and developmental intricacies of Genie’s life, now retrieved the funds once and for all in 1974, given the fact that there were no much scientific findings. Further, it was found that the main researcher under which Genie was left to be “studied”, a renowned linguist Susan Curtiss, had conducted her research in a disorganized and anecdotal manner which was not quite useful in addition to the required scientific findings.

In 1975, Genie went back to live with her birth mother. When her mother found the work too tough, Genie was placed in a series of foster homes, where she was frequently subjected to additional cruelty and neglect. Genie’s circumstances worsened. She returned to Children’s Hospital after being in foster care for a long time. Unfortunately, the progress made during her first stay was greatly hampered by the subsequent treatment she got in foster care. Genie was terrified to speak and had relapsed into silence.

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https://www.verywellmind.com/genie-the-story-of-the-wild-child-2795241

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Wild Child Speechless After Tortured Life

Straitjacketed for 13 years, adult "Genie" still lives a shuttered life.

May 7, 2008 — -- They called her "Genie" -- a pseudonym to protect her privacy -- because since infancy her life had been bottled up in the horrors she experienced in one dimly lit room.

Alternately tethered to a potty seat or tied up in a sleeping bag in a mesh-sided crib under a metal cover, Genie had contact only with her abusive father during nearly 12 years of confinement.

After her emergence from that torture in 1970, the waiflike child became a cause celebre among researchers and do-gooders who wanted both to learn from her and save her. For doctors, her case is like that of the three children recently released from years of isolation in an Austrian cellar.

The world read with revulsion last week the details of Austrian Josef Fritzl's 24-year imprisonment and abuse of his daughter and three of the seven children he fathered with her.

The twists of Genie's life since her release -- a succession of breakthroughs, setbacks and manipulations at the hands of caregivers, researchers and foster homes -- offer some perspective on the path ahead for the severely stunted Austrian children, who communicate mostly in simple grunts and gestures, much like Genie did after her rescue.

During the four years she was under the intense care of specialists at Children's Hospital at UCLA, Genie progressed, but only briefly.

Though she eventually learned to speak, the team of credentialed doctors with millions of dollars in federal funding could not rescue Genie from a fate of abuse and exploitation.

Doctors argued over her care and affections. Finger-pointing, hateful allegations and a lawsuit followed. Even storytellers and filmmakers took sides, and ultimately, Genie regressed.

Today Genie is 51. She is again in psychological confinement as a ward of the state -- her sixth foster home. And again, she is speechless.

"We fumbled the ball," James Kent, a consulting psychologist for the Victims of Crime program in California and Genie's psychologist told ABCNEWS.com. "We had the opportunity to allow more of her potential. It was as much out of ignorance as disagreements."

Genie's story began 20 months after her birth in 1957. Believing she was mentally retarded, Clark Wiley locked his daughter away, separating her from her nearly blind mother and 6-year-old brother, under the guise of protecting her.

Wiley spoon-fed her only Pablum and milk, and spoke to her mostly in barks and growls. He beat her with a wooden paddle every time she uttered a sound.

In 1970, Genie's 50-year-old mother, Irene, escaped with Genie, then 13. Her brother, John, then 18, was left behind, and told ABCNEWS.com that he, too, had been abused at the hands of his father -- a man who was raised by a "bar girl" in a bordello and didn't "pamper or baby."

Mother and child turned up at welfare offices in Los Angeles, seeking financial support. Caseworkers noticed the odd child, who spat and clawed and moved in a jerky "bunny walk," with her hands held out front.

The Wileys were charged with child abuse, but the day they were to appear in court, Clark Wiley shot himself to death after reportedly leaving a note that read: "The world will never understand."

John Wiley, now 56 and a housepainter in Ohio, admitted he had often been in the room where Genie was tortured. "Whether I liked what I seen or not, it wasn't like I was in a position to tell my mom. I was a captive audience and could do nothing about it."

When she entered Children's Hospital at the age of 14 -- still in diapers -- Genie was the size of an 8-year-old with the language and motor skills of a baby, speaking only a few words -- including "stopit" and "nomore."

Her discovery coincided with the premiere of Francois Truffaut's film "The Wild Child," about an 18th century French "wolf boy" and the doctor who adopted and tried to civilize him.

Riveted during a private showing of the film, the staff assigned to Genie's care applied for a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study Genie's rehabilitation.

The hottest academic issue of the day was the 1967 Lenneberg theory that maintained that children cannot learn language after puberty. In some ways, Genie disproved this, but she had passed the "critical period" and was never able to master grammatical structure.

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Where is Genie Wiley now? The Secrets about her Healthcare exposed

• by Chege Karomo
•  – on Jan 24, 2022
•  in Extra

When Genie Wiley and her mother mistakenly walked into a Los Angeles County welfare office, the child’s appearance petrified everyone present. Genie stooped and walked like a rabbit, couldn’t control her bowel movements, and had a rare dental condition that caused the growth of two sets of teeth. Many suspected autism, but a deeper investigation uncovered gruesome horrors.

Genie – a fake name given to hide her identity – had been the subject of abuse at the hands of her father for more than a decade. Her insane father had kept her in isolation since she was 20 months old, apparently believing that she was mentally retarded. Every attempt by Genie to make a noise met stern punishment and rebuke.

The location of the over 60-year-old Genie remains a closely guarded secret

A year after Genie’s discovery, she was placed under the care of foster parents David Rigler and his wife Marilyn. For five years, the National Institute of Mental Health funded her stay with David before withdrawing funding due to mismanagement of the case. The Riglers ended their care for Genie, later stating in a 1994 NOVA documentary that they assumed that the foster care arrangement was ‘temporary.’

Genie’s placement in foster care homes proved detrimental to her development. In 1977, she detailed in sign language how one of her foster parents punished her for vomiting. Despite this, she returned to foster care until she turned 18, when authorities placed her in an adult care home. The name of the facility is unknown, and the private foundation responsible for her care refuses to divulge the information. 

Irene Wiley, Genie’s mother, obtained legal guardianship for her daughter, but Genie had already been placed in a home. Russ Rymer, a journalist, painted a bleak picture of Genie’s condition during her 27th birthday. He wrote :

“A large, bumbling woman with a facial expression of cowlike incomprehension… her eyes focus poorly on the cake. Her dark hair has been hacked off raggedly at the top of her forehead, giving her the aspect of an asylum inmate.”

Jay Shurley, a professor present at Genie’s 29th birthday, offered a similarly somber assessment: “It was heartrending.” Attempts to contact Genie are routinely rebuffed by authorities.  The Guardian  received the following response after asking to see Genie:

“If ‘Genie’ is alive, information relating to her is confidential and it does not meet the criteria of information that is available through a PRA Request. We would suggest that you contact Los Angeles County with your request.”

Mental health authorities didn’t reply to a query sent by LA County. Susan Curtiss, a UCLA professor who formed a bond with Genie, has similarly been unsuccessful in her attempts to contact or see Genie. Curtiss is, however, confident that Genie is alive. She told  The Guardian  that the last time she saw Genie was in the 80s:

“I am not in touch with her, but not by my choice. They never let me have any contact with her. I’ve become powerless in my attempts to visit her or write to her. I long to see her. There is a hole in my heart and soul from not being able to see her that doesn’t go away.”

Wrangles between scientists and Genie’s caregivers led to withdrawal of funding for her care

Genie’s appearance from the blue baffled and excited scientists at the same time. The scientists had a specimen that they could use to test the 1967 Lenneberg theory that claimed that children couldn’t learn after puberty. They put Genie through brain scans and countless tests to try to understand Genie’s cognitive abilities. 

However, some saw Genie as more than a science experiment – as a human being in need of love and care. And then there were the outliers, like Jean Butler, a rehabilitation teacher who saw in Genie an opportunity to gain fame. Eventually, the caregivers and scientists pushed aside Jean Butler and saw Genie make a stunning recovery. 

Genie learned to play, dress, and enjoy music. She sketched pictures, learned words, and sign language to communicate. She also performed admirably in intelligence tests. Susan Curtiss told  The Guardian :

“Language and thought are distinct from each other. For many of us, our thoughts are verbally encoded. For Genie, her thoughts were virtually never verbally encoded, but there are many ways to think. She was smart. She could hold a set of pictures so they told a story. She could create all sorts of complex structures from sticks. She had other signs of intelligence. The lights were on.”

Genie started to attend nursery school, further broadening her vocabulary. However, the wrangles between scientists about the best course for her care and development caused inconsistencies in her records, forcing the National Institute of Mental Health to withdraw funding. 

In 1979, Irene Wiley sued the hospital and her children’s caregivers for allegedly using Genie for ‘prestige and profit’ and excessive testing. The suit was settled in 1984, and Susan Curtiss, perhaps the most innocent caregiver of them all, was banned from seeing Genie. “Genie had so my losses, and here she was losing the one person who had remained in her life ever since I met her,” Susan told  ABC News .

The widely accepted conclusion is that Genie’s scientist caregivers failed her, all except for Susan Curtiss. Harry Bromley-Davenport, a filmmaker who extensively interviewed Susan Curtiss, told  ABC News : 

“Susie is the only absolute angel in this whole horrifying saga. She is an extraordinary person. The greatest tragedy was Genie being abandoned after all the attention. She disappointed the scientists, and they all folded their tent and left when the money went away – all except Susie.”

Genie’s family suffered tragic fates after the saga ended

Genie’s father, Clark Wiley, never wanted to have children, but after marrying Irene Oglesby, the children came – and died. Their first baby died after being left in a cold garage and the second from birth complications. The third child, John, survived but suffered under the care of an abusive further. He fled home to live with his grandmother, who died in 1958 following a tragic accident. 

John returned home to find a little sister, Genie. His grandmother’s death seemed to unlock a new level of cruelty in Clark. He locked Genie in a lifeless basement, and when he came to feed her, he beat her every time she made a noise. John endured regular beatings from Clark, including blows to his testicles inflicted to make him sterile. 

Clark, in a move of extreme cowardice, killed himself before his trial. “The world will never understand,” his suicide note read. “Be a good boy, I love you,” Clark wrote in a second note addressed to John. In the aftermath of Genie’s discovery, authorities neglected John and the struggles he went through. Frank Linely, the detective in charge of the case, told  ABC News  that it was a mistake to ignore John:

“John was as much a victim of the family dynamics as the younger sister was. But he was so little a part of the direction of the case. Unfortunately, we never really paid attention to him. The case comes back to haunt me.”

John left the Los Angeles area for rural Ohio and only saw his mother once before her death in 2003. After the death, he shunned everything to do with Genie and his family, but he can never completely forget it. “I have forgiven, but I can’t forget,” he said. 

Despite his father’s best efforts, John ended up having a daughter with his wife. “I was afraid to have kids because of my upbringing,” he said. His daughter turned to crack cocaine for solace after John’s marriage with his wife ended. She was, consequently, unable to take care of John’s two granddaughters. However, John told  ABC News  that he still retains optimism:

“They didn’t give me the tools, the knowledge about accomplishment and setting goals and the Bible and God. I feel at times God failed me. Maybe I failed him. But it’s never too late.”

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Tortured, starved, alone: genie, the tragic story of a feral child.

• Strangeness

Imagine yourself trapped in a world where no one wants to talk to you or listen to your words. A world where no one cares for you, where everything seems distant, dark, and strange. The world of a feral child.

While most of us grew up with fascinating stories about feral children such as Mowgli or Tarzan, there are children who never heard of such childhood heroes, spending their early years totally unaware of human social behavior or language.

The world does not lack real life stories of feral children and this has been our reality since ancient times. There are cases of children living with animals far away from civilization, but the stories of the  children isolated from the rest of the world while being abused by their own parents are the most heart-breaking.

The abuse experienced by these children is so shocking that even the toughest among us might blink back tears. Out of the many examples of feral children, there is one that is considered by many to be the saddest: a girl nicknamed “Genie.”

The story of Genie first came to light on November 4, 1970, when her mother brought her into a welfare office in Los Angeles, claiming that they’d both been abused and tortured by the father of the girl.

At first, social workers were positive that the girl couldn’t be more than seven years old. They were stunned to find out that she was actually 13 years old, and informed the police about the case. What was soon revealed would shock even those who worked for decades as social workers.

The little girl weighed just 59 pounds and walked strangely, holding up her hands like a rabbit. She could speak no more than 20 words or phrases, including mother , go , orange , stop it, and no more . It was revealed that she had been confined to a small room for as long as 10 years, but what was worse, she spent most of the 10 years tied to a potty chair by her abusive father who often beat her if she made even for the slightest noise. In order to protect her identity and privacy, social workers nicknamed her Genie. In the history of the United States, there has never been a case of social isolation as cruel as the one they witnessed in the fall of 1970.

Clark Wiley, Genie’s mentally ill father, hated two things: children and noise. Genie was not the first of his children to be abused by him as two of the Wileys four children had died even before Genie was born. Apart from Genie, John, her older brother, also managed to survive the horrors and the abuse of their father, describing the family home to social workers as a “concentration camp.”

Clark Wiley believed that his daughter was mentally disabled and decided to lock her away, never allowing Genie’s mother and brother to speak a word to her. The perpetually hungry child was mostly given baby food, cereal, eggs, and water. Her mother would sometimes sneak out of the bedroom when Genie’s father was asleep and attempt to give her food, but the girl could hardly chew and swallow.

After the intervention of the Child Protective Service, a team of experts was formed with the goal to challenge her mental abilities. It was clear that the trauma she experienced would remain with her for the rest of her life, but they also discovered that Genie was a very intelligent child and she quickly learned how to express herself.

She was finally able to describe her father’s cruelty by saying: “Father hit arm. Big wood. Genie cry . . . Not spit. Father. Hit face – spit . . . Father hit big stick. Father is angry. Father hit Genie big stick. Father take piece wood hit. Cry. Father make me cry. Father is dead.”

The research project proved to be too controversial. Genie had a series of foster parents, including the head of the research team, and in some cases she again experienced abuse. Nonetheless, perhaps the biggest mistake was sending her at the age of 18 to live with her mother in the home where she spent her nightmarish childhood. As you might guess, this didn’t work, and Genie eventually was sent back to a foster home.

Read another story from us: The Harpe brothers: The first recorded serial killers in the United States

No one knows exactly where is she today, but ABCNEWS.com reported that she has been living in a privately run facility.

Genie Wiley’s Case Study: Implications for Critical Period Hypothesis and Child Abuse and Neglect

Genie wiley- case study.

Genie Wiley was a young girl who was kept in severe isolation and abuse for most of her childhood, restricting her ability to learn language, social skills, and normal emotional expressions. As a result, she suffered from severe mental and physical disabilities that lasted throughout her life. Her case study is often cited in studies related to the critical period hypothesis and the importance of early childhood experiences on cognitive and emotional development.

1) What is the critical period hypothesis?

The critical period hypothesis is a theory that states that there is a time during early childhood when the brain is most susceptible to developing certain cognitive and physical abilities. It is believed that if experiences critical to development do not occur during this period, it may be difficult or impossible for individuals to acquire certain skills later in life.

2) How did Genie’s early childhood experiences affect her cognitive development?

Genie’s early childhood experiences had a significant impact on her cognitive development. She was deprived of language stimulation and normal social interactions during her crucial developmental years, resulting in a lack of basic cognitive and social skills. As a result, she suffered from severe developmental delays, intellectual disabilities, and a limited ability to communicate with verbal language. Genie’s case is often used to study the effects of deprivation, neglect, and abuse on child development.

3) How might Genie’s case study inform our understanding of child abuse and neglect?

Genie’s case highlights the severe consequences of child abuse and neglect on a child’s cognitive, social, and emotional development. It is evident from her case that prolonged deprivation of normal social interactions can have a lasting impact on a child’s cognitive abilities. Her case emphasizes the importance of providing children with safe and nurturing environments where they can receive proper care and positive stimulation, particularly during their early childhood years.

4) What might have been done differently to help Genie during her childhood years?

In hindsight, several things could have been done differently to help Genie during her childhood years. She needed a safe, nurturing, and stimulating environment that provided her with love, attention, and social interaction. If she had been discovered earlier, she could have been placed in a foster home where she could have received specialized support and therapy. Furthermore, social workers and psychologists could have provided language and cognitive therapy to help her overcome her developmental setbacks.

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Genie the Feral Child: the Girl Who Spent 13 Years Locked in a Room All Alone

• Post author: Janey Davies, B.A. (Hons)
• Post published: May 11, 2021
• Reading time: 9 mins read
• Post category: Personality

If you haven’t come across the shocking case of Genie the feral child, then prepare yourself. Genie’s suffering has been described as one of the worst cases of child abuse ever seen.

The Tragic Case of Genie the Feral Child

The case of Genie the feral child came to public attention in 1970 on November 4 by accident. A mother, suffering from cataracts, walked into a Los Angeles County welfare office by mistake. She was looking for assistance for her own medical health problems. But caseworkers were quickly alerted to the filthy little girl that accompanied her.

The girl exhibited extremely odd behaviour. She didn’t stand upright but stooped and took little hops to follow her mother around. She couldn’t extend her arms or legs and would frequently spit.

The girl wore diapers, was incontinent, and did not talk, nor did she seem able to focus her eyes. She had two complete sets of teeth yet could not chew or eat properly.

Caseworkers judged the girl’s age to be around 5 from her appearance and behavior but were stunned to learn from the mother that Genie (her name has been changed to protect her identity) was 13 years old.

Was this girl disabled or had she been injured, they wondered? When the truth finally emerged, it shocked the world.

Genie’s Horrific Background

Genie had spent all her childhood in a blacked-out room isolated from the family. She had been forced to sit in a homemade straitjacket, strapped to a chair with a potty underneath for all her childhood.

Forbidden to cry, talk, or make any noise, no one talked to Genie or touched her. Her father would periodically growl and beat her.

But how did this happen in the quiet and tranquil streets of suburban America?

Genie’s Abusive Parents

Genie’s father, Clark Wiley , was a controlling man with an acute aversion to noise. He worked as a machinist during WW2. As a child, he lived in whichever brothel his mother happened to be working in at the time.

He married the much younger Irene Oglesby , a helpless submissive woman who acquiesced to his every demand.

Clark did not want children from his marriage. They were too much trouble and too noisy. But he did want to have sex with his young wife. So, inevitably, children came along. This infuriated Clark.

When his first daughter was born, he left her in the garage to freeze to death. Luckily for Clark, the next baby died of complications at birth. Then, a son survived – John, and finally, Genie.

Genie’s Nightmare Begins

It was when Clark’s mother was killed by a drunk driver in 1958 that he descended into brutality and rage. Genie bore the brunt of his cruelty . She was little more than 20 months old, but Clark had decided she was mentally deranged and useless to society. She should, therefore, be shut away from everyone.

From this day, Genie’s nightmare began. She spent the next 13 years in this room, with no contact with the outside world, suffering beatings in complete silence.

But now she was in the custody of Los Angeles Children’s Services, the question was – could this feral child be saved?

The Feral Child Genie Is Discovered

Genie was moved to an LA children’s hospital and the race was on for who would get the chance to examine and rehabilitate her. After all, Genie was a blank slate. She presented a unique opportunity to study the effects of severe deprivation on a child .

Funding was provided and a ‘Genie team’ assembled, which consisted of psychologists David Rigler and James Kent , and UCLA linguistics professor Susan Curtiss .

“I think everybody who came in contact with her was attracted to her. She had a quality of somehow connecting with people, which developed more and more but was present, really, from the start. She had a way of reaching out without saying anything, but just somehow by the kind of look in her eyes, and people wanted to do things for her.” Rigler

UCLA linguistics professor Susan Curtiss worked with Genie and soon discovered that this 13-year-old had the mental capacity of a 1-year-old toddler . Despite this, Genie proved to be exceptionally bright and quick to learn.

At first, Genie could only speak a few words, but Curtiss managed to expand her vocabulary and the horrifying story of Genie’s life emerged.

“Father hit arm. Big wood. Genie cry … Not spit. Father. Hit face—spit … Father hit big stick. Father angry. Father hit Genie big stick. Father take piece wood hit. Cry. Me cry.”

Kent described Genie as “the most profoundly damaged child I’ve ever seen … Genie’s life is a wasteland.”

In spite of the horrific abuse , Genie’s progress was rapid and encouraging. Curtiss had become attached to the feral child and was hopeful for Genie. Genie would draw pictures when she could not find the right words. She scored highly on intelligence tests and was engaging with people she met. But try as she might, Curtiss could not get Genie past telegraphic speech.

Why Genie Could Not Learn Language

Telegraphic speech is made up of two or three words and is one of the first steps in language development , (e.g., Want doll, Daddy come, Funny dog). It is typical of 2-3 year-olds.

Gradually, a child will begin to add more words and start to construct sentences that include adjectives and articles, (e.g., The car drives. I want a banana, Mummy brings me teddy).

Language acquisition

Language sets us apart from other animals. While it is true that animals do communicate with each other, it is only humans that use complex forms of language which includes grammar and syntax. But how do we acquire this capability? Do we pick it up from our environment or it is instilled within us from birth?

In other words, nature or nurture?

Behaviorist BF Skinner proposed that language acquisition was the result of positive reinforcement . We say a word, our mothers smile at us and we repeat that word.

Linguist Noam Chomsky disputed this theory. Positive reinforcement cannot explain how humans form grammatically correct unique sentences. Chomsky theorised that humans are prewired to acquire language. He called it the Language Acquisition Device (LAD).

However, there is only a small window of opportunity for grammatical language to be acquired. This window is available between the ages of 5 – 10 years old. After that, the child may still build up a large lexicon of words, but they will never be able to form sentences.

And this what happened with Genie. Because she was kept in isolation and complete silence , she did not have the opportunity to listen or converse with others. This is what activates the LAD.

The System Failed Genie the Feral Child

Genie was such a special case that right from the start researchers and psychiatrists had vied for the chance to study her. But in 1972, the funding had been used up. Fierce debates about Genie’s future ensued, with Curtiss battling on one side and scientists and teachers on the other.

One such teacher specializing in rehabilitation – Jean Butler , convinced Genie’s mother Irene to sue for custody of Genie, which was successful. However, Irene was ill-equipped to deal with Genie’s complex needs. Genie was placed into a foster home, but this quickly failed.

She ended up in state institutions. Curtiss, who had made so much progress with Genie in the initial stages of her recovery, was forbidden to see her. As were all the other researchers and teachers.

Genie fell back into her old feral child ways, defecating and spitting whenever she felt stressed. Staff beat her for these infractions and she regressed even further. The promising improvement she had made since her release was now a thing of the past.

Where Is Genie the Feral Child Now?

There have been a few reports of Genie since her separation from Curtiss and placement into the state.

Journalist, Russ Rymer, author of ‘ Genie: A Scientific Tragedy ’ wrote of his shock at the devastating effect the years in state institutions had on Genie:

“A large, bumbling woman with a facial expression of cowlike incomprehension … her eyes focus poorly on the cake. Her dark hair has been hacked off raggedly at the top of her forehead, giving her the aspect of an asylum inmate.” – Rymer

Psychiatry and behavioural science professor Jay Shurley attended Genie’s 27th and 29th birthday parties. He was heartbroken at Genie’s appearance, describing her as depressed, quiet, and institutionalised.

No one knows what happened to the little feral child that hopped into that LA welfare office all those decades ago. Even Curtiss can’t reach her, although she believes that Genie is still alive.

It is thought that Genie the feral child today is living in an adult foster home.

Watch this documentary to learn more about this tragic story:

Final Thoughts

Some believe that the rush to learn and study Genie the feral child was at odds with Genie’s wellbeing and recovery. However, at the time, little was known about acquiring language and Genie was a blank slate. This was an ideal opportunity to learn.

So, should she have been studied so intensely? Was Genie’s case simply too important to put her welfare first and to ensure she received continued care? What do you think?

References :

• www.sciencedirect.com
• www.pbs.org

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This Post Has 3 Comments

This story has haunted me as a child. I am extremely angry that the American government cannot go in and rescue her!

Layla, your comment doesn’t make make much sense. Genie isn’t a political prisoner in a foreign land who needs the Navy Seals to make an undercover rescue mission. And she’s a ward of the state so she’s already in the hands of the government

so the institutions the state etc. just gave up on her and put her away. that is insane and disgusting.

why is Curtiss not allowed to see her? seems like the psyateix system haswnt evolved the last 50 years.

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Genie Wiley: The Girl Who Was Locked and Abused For 13 Years

The worst childhood possible.

by Andrei Tapalaga | Apr 28, 2023 | Culture

Genie Wiley was born in 1957 in Arcadia, California and her childhood was anything but simple. Her father was an alcoholic and her mother suffered from mental illness, leading to a difficult home life for Genie. At the age of 20 months, Genie’s father began to isolate her from the world, confining her to a single room with no toys or other forms of comfort. She was unable to interact with anyone outside of this room and she had no access to books or any other form of stimulation.

This isolation went on for 13 years until Genie was discovered by social services at the age of 13. Upon discovering her, they brought her to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles where she could receive proper medical care and attention. This discovery sparked an intense scientific and ethical debate as experts attempted to understand the effects that extreme isolation would have on a person’s physical and mental health.

Genie’s story serves as an important reminder about the importance of mental health, communication, and understanding human rights. It is a cautionary tale that highlights just how dangerous it can be when someone is deprived of basic human contact or needs for extended periods of time. While we can never fully understand what Genie experienced during those 13 years, we can use her story as an example of why it is so important to ensure everyone has access to basic needs like safety, security and love.

Effects of Isolation

When Genie Wiley was discovered at the age of thirteen, she was in a state of physical and mental decline due to her extreme isolation. Her physical condition had deteriorated significantly, as she had not been exposed to any form of stimulation or nutrition since infancy. She was unable to walk, and had difficulty controlling her body movements which were often jerky and uncoordinated.

Cognitively, Genie’s development had been severely stunted. She did not understand concepts such as time, space and color and could only communicate through rudimentary sounds. Her language abilities were far behind what would be expected for a thirteen-year-old. In addition, Genie exhibited signs of extreme emotional fragility: she would often react with fear to even the slightest stimuli, such as being touched or spoken to by someone unfamiliar.

Malnourishment and extreme underweight also contributed to Genie’s condition when she was eventually discovered. She weighed just 59 pounds (27 kg) which is about half the normal weight for a person her age and height. This further highlighted the severity of the situation that Genie endured during her thirteen years in isolation.

It is clear from Genie’s story how detrimental prolonged isolation can be on an individual’s physical health, cognitive development, emotional wellbeing, and overall quality of life. It is essential that we learn from this case study so we can ensure no other person ever has to endure anything like it again in future.

The Discovery of Genie

In November 1970, the discovery of Genie Wiley brought to light a unique case that has sparked much debate and discussion in both scientific and ethical circles. Despite having been kept in extreme isolation for 13 years by her father, Genie still showed signs of resilience when she was found at the age of 13. At this point, she was unable to walk or communicate, and weighed only 59 pounds due to malnourishment – yet her story highlighted a potential for growth and recovery even after such an extended period of deprivation.

This case has served as an important reminder that mental health should never be ignored or underestimated. It also raises questions over the effects of extreme isolation on individuals’ physical and mental wellbeing, with experts arguing that it demonstrates the importance of early intervention when someone is deprived of basic human needs. Finally, it serves as a testament to human resilience – showing us all that we have strength within ourselves which can help us through difficult times.

The Aftermath of the Discovery

The story of Genie Wiley and her plight for basic human rights has had a lasting impact on both the scientific and ethical communities. Following her rescue, Genie was moved to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where she became the subject of intense study by researchers who sought to understand how prolonged isolation impacted her development. This scrutiny sparked debates among scientists and ethicists regarding the effects of extreme isolation on physical and mental wellbeing, as well as important ethical questions surrounding child abuse and neglect.

Sadly, despite best efforts to help her recover while at the hospital, Genie’s condition did not improve much over time due to lack of exposure to language during those early years . Her cognitive development remained stunted due to years of deprivation from basic human contact and needs. In light of this tragic case, it is essential that we consider how our own actions can impact an individual’s life in such profound ways – both positively or negatively –and take necessary steps to ensure all humans are provided with respect for their autonomy, access to healthcare services, understanding for mental health needs, freedom from confinement or isolation and access to education.

What We Can Learn From Genie’s Story

The tragic story of Genie Wiley serves as an important reminder of how neglect can have serious consequences. Her case highlights the importance of taking care of our mental health, as deprivation of basic human needs and communication can cause severe psychological harm. It is important to be aware of the signs of abuse or neglect and take action when we see them.

Socialization and communication are essential for healthy human development, as evidenced by Genie’s stunted cognitive growth due to lack of exposure to language during her early years. Though it was too late for Genie, it is still possible to help those suffering from isolation through interventions such as therapy, support networks and even social media platforms like Twitter which provide a safe space for people to connect with others going through similar experiences.

In addition, Genie’s story should also serve as a reminder that we should be raising awareness about human rights for individuals with disabilities or other marginalized groups who may be subject to unfair treatment or isolation. We should all strive towards creating an inclusive society where everyone has access to education, healthcare services and their basic human rights are respected and protected.

Ultimately, Genie’s story stands as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in spite of unimaginable hardship – but it also serves as a reminder that we should do everything in our power to ensure that no one else ever has to suffer the same fate.

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Upcoming historian with over 30 million views online.

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Forgotten victim of 'worst ever child abuse case' as sick dad beat son in groin with bat

The case of 'feral child' Genie Wiley, who suffered horrendous abuse at the hands of her vile father, shocked the world - but her brother's tragic life remained comparatively in the shadows

• 13:50, 6 Oct 2021

Standing watch outside his "concentration camp" home, young John Wiley was forced to hide a traumatising secret.

Inside the walls of their California house, his warped father had strapped his little sister to a potty in a straitjacket, beating and barking at her like a dog in one of the world's worst ever child abuse cases .

When Genie - the pseudonym given to protect her identity - was eventually rescued, horrified social service staff found she was unable to talk, hopped like a rabbit and suffered from numerous physical deformities.

The 'feral child' became the subject of worldwide media coverage and allegedly intrusive studies, with her carers and scientists accusing each other of exploitation.

Yet while Genie's case continued to draw the spotlight, her brother's own horrific upbringing was comparatively forgotten.

Beaten horrifically in the groin and sent to school with notes to ensure gym teachers wouldn't notice his bruises, John's story is almost as harrowing - and tragically continued long after he escaped their father's clutches.

Tragic crash sent boy back to house of horrors

Before he was even born, John's father, Clark Wiley, was already harbouring a grim secret.

His first child with wife Irene, who was 20 years his junior, died after being left in a cold garage to stifle her cries, while a second died from birth complications.

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Cruel, controlling Wiley hated noise and never even wanted children - but his sadistic behaviour spiralled one fateful day when John was just six.

By now, the youngster had lived for two years with his loving grandmother who took him in after becoming fearful that her son was an unstable parent.

However, one afternoon, as John went to buy an ice cream in the street, he turned in horror to see an out-of-control drink driver slam into his gran, dragging her body down the road.

Forced to return home after her death, he could only watch helplessly as his mourning father descended further into paranoia.

John was five years older than Genie, who became the chief focus of Wiley's abuse from the age of 20 months.

Convinced his daughter was disabled, the demented dad strapped the tot into a handmade straightjacket and tied her to a potty chair in a silent bedroom during the day.

According to researchers, Wiley did not speak to her and he instructed Irene and John to do the same.

At night, she was locked inside a cot with a wire cover and fed almost entirely on liquids.

Wiley growled and barked at his daughter like a dog and if she made a noise, he beat her with a plank.

The other bedroom remained vacant and was used as a shrine to Wiley's mother.

Battered in groin by abusive dad in 'concentration camp' home

"My house was like a concentration camp," John told ABC in 2008, in a rare interview about his life.

"I never knew what normal was."

With his father dominating the terrified family by sitting at home with a gun in his lap, John said he was forced to act as a 'sentry guard' to hide his grim secrets.

As his sister cried in the barbaric cot at night, the boy was left to sleep on the floor of his living room - Wiley rested on a recliner, his wife on a dining table chair.

John wasn't spared the cruel abuse his father dished out either.

Entering his teenage years, the tormented lad was tied to a chair while his dad beat his testicles with a three-foot board.

"I don't think he wanted me to have children, and it's a wonder I did," said John.

"He would write me a note excusing me from gym so the kids didn't see my privates in the showers."

Speaking to ABC from his home in Ohio, where he worked as a house painter, he added: "I was left out in left field and no one came to my rescue.

"I am a living dead man."

Suicide note left for traumatised son

By 1970, John - now 18 - had run away from home, terrified of his father's increasing violence.

Similarly fearing for her life and plagued by poor eyesight, his mum Irene fled the house of horrors with Genie.

Due to her cataracts, she mistakenly blundered into the wrong welfare office seeking a disability pension.

A social worker spotted Genie, who was unlike anything even the most experienced staff had ever seen before.

Unable to talk, she had nearly two sets of fully-formed teeth due to a rare dental condition.

She seemed unsteady on her feet, her limbs jerked and she held her hands in front of her body like a rabbit.

Genie was 13 but had the mental age of a baby and after thorough examinations, experts said she demonstrated the most severe case of child abuse on record.

Weighing just 26kg, she was moved to LA’s children’s hospital and Wiley was charged with child abuse.

On the day his father was due to appear in court, John was standing outside his home with a friend when they heard a gunshot.

The warped dad killed himself with a .38 revolver, leaving his funeral clothes on the bed along with $400 for John.

"The world will never understand," he wrote in one note, leaving a separate message for his son that read: "Be a good boy, I love you."

'Forgotten' victim's tragic final years

Genie's story was told in newspapers and TV bulletins around the world, and later sparked an Emmy-winning documentary, Secret of the Wild Child.

Researchers also flocked around the feral child and her status soon changed from welfare case to case study.

For four years, she was studied by scientists fascinated by the 'Lenneberg theory', which suggested that children could not learn language after puberty.

Divided over the child's wellbeing, carers and scientists accused each other of exploitation.

Funding for the studies dried up and Genie was moved through a series of foster homes, eventually ending up in a private adult home for the mentally disabled in southern California.

John, meanwhile, lived sporadically with family and friends, before travelling across America taking a series of odd jobs at petrol stations and factories.

He was briefly jailed for stealing cars during a number of brushes with the law and joined the Navy for around six months before being discharged.

Settling in Ohio, he married and had a daughter named Pamela, but seemed unable to escape the tragedy that had marred his life from the cradle.

His marriage crumbled after 18 years and Pamela became addicted to crack cocaine - charged by police in 2010 with endangering her own two daughters.

By this point, John - who had diabetes - was recovering from a heart attack and had become estranged from his grandchildren.

He hadn't seen Genie since 1982 and had lost touch with his mum, who died in 2003.

In 2011, John passed away at the age of 58. Heartbreakingly, he was followed by Pamela a year later.

It was reported in 2016 that Genie was living in a state care facility, approaching her 60th birthday.

"John was as much a victim of the family dynamics as the younger sister was," retired detective Frank Linley, who arrested Clark and Irene before she was released, told ABC.

"But he was so little a part of the direction of the case. Unfortunately, we never really paid attention to him."

Three years before his death, John said he had learned to shut out the trauma of his cruel childhood.

"I've been able to block out my past," he said.

"When you are a kid, you try to trust your parents. I think I trusted the wrong people."

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Dissecting the Legacy — What Really Happened to Genie Wiley?

Published Dec. 7 2023, 9:17 a.m. ET

• Genie Wiley is considered the most abused child in history.
• Discovered at 13 years old, Genie became a subject of language and cognitive development studies. Despite progress, she struggled with communication and faced challenges after the study.
• Post-experiment, Genie's life took a tragic turn in foster care. Experiencing further abuse, she regressed into silence, and her current whereabouts are unknown.

Some scientific cases might ring a bell to the average citizen — Pavlov’s dog (bell-ringing pun intended), Schrodinger’s cat, and the Stanford prison experiment are just a few of those mainstream experiments. But the story of Genie Wiley was also circulated for decades as she provided a unique opportunity for scientists.

Genie, a fake name given to protect her identity, is often considered the most abused child in history. Because of this, when she was discovered, she could barely walk, chew, or use the toilet. Most importantly, she couldn’t communicate at all. Scientists used her to study language and cognitive development, but the story doesn’t have such a happy ending. So, what happened to Genie Wiley?

Genie Wiley was extremely abused in her childhood.

Genie was born in April 1957 in Los Angeles, Calif. to an abusive father and a mother who couldn’t defend her. Genie’s mother, Irene, suffered from cataracts, which caused near-blindness and led her to fearfully depend on her husband, Clark. He was considered an abusive psychopath. His mother died when he was younger in a hit-and-run, after which he displayed psychopathic tendencies.

Of the four children Irene and Clark had, one died due to birth complications, one died as an infant locked in a cold garage, and the other two were Genie and her older brother, John. John was essentially Genie’s only caretaker. He fed her baby food, cereal, and milk at the instruction of his father, whom he also greatly feared. John wasn't allowed to speak to Genie.

During the day, Clark harnessed Genie naked to a toilet seat. If she made any sounds, he would beat her with wood. He only barked and growled at her, so Genie rarely heard anyone speak. At night, Genie was straitjacketed inside of a wire-mesh “crib” — essentially a cage.

Genie’s existence was discovered when Irene took her outside when Clark ran out for groceries. Irene was seeking a cure for her blindness and thought she walked into a blindness disability benefits office, but she instead went to social services. The social workers immediately noticed Genie’s strange behavior — her gait mimicked that of a rabbit, she drooled, was incontinent, and looked to be about 7 years old when she was actually 13.

Genie Wiley was “saved” by the social workers, but her whereabouts now are unknown.

At that point, Irene and Clark were arrested for child abuse, although Irene was released on account of being a victim as well. Clark took his own life at 70 years old just before he was due in court. His suicide note just said, “The world will never understand.” No, we won’t!

Genie was raised by doctors, psychologists, therapists, and more, from 1970 to 1975. She was admitted to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which applied for a grant to study her. Because withholding a proper childhood would be unethical, Genie’s case was a rare opportunity to study the possibilities of learning linguistics after early childhood.

She quickly learned basic skills, like going to the toilet and dressing herself, but she was never able to excel beyond stringing two to three words together at a time. And she never grasped grammatical concepts, despite linguists’ hard work to teach her. She was fostered by researcher and psychologist David Rigler and his wife, Marilyn, until 1975. At this point, Genie was about 18 years old and the grant had been revoked.

Genie was forced to move back in with her mother, who wasn't able to care for her, so she went into the foster care system. This led to more abuse and Genie regressed and didn't speak, although she was still able to communicate nonverbally. Now, however, it’s unknown where Genie is and if she’s still alive.

On her 27th and 29th birthdays, psychiatrist Jay Shurley said that Genie was “largely silent, depressed, and chronically institutionalized,” according to Very Well Mind . In 2000, a private investigator found that Genie was reportedly living in an adult care facility and was “happy.” Now, there’s no record of where she is, but if she’s still alive, she would be 66 years old.

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Case Study of a Feral Child - Genie Wiley

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Document Details

• Author Type Student
• Word Count 1480
• Page Count 3
• Level International Baccalaureate
• Subject Psychology
• Type of work Research assignment (e.g. EPQs)

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