Secret Of The Wild Child Critical Thinking Samples

Introduction

The purpose of this assignment is to discuss the importance of biological and environmental influences on language acquisition. The assignment was completed by watching the video “Secret of the Wild Child”, where a girl was isolated for most of her life to a potty chair.

Discussion

In the case of Genie, it was quite visible that biological and environmental influences had significant importance in terms of language acquisition. Since she was isolated for most of her life, she was barely able to walk and talk. When she was sat free from her parents, it was noticed that she had a funny walk like a rabbit. More importantly, she barely spoke as she failed to vocalize any words unlike other children. She was silent as she was beaten for making noises. In this regards, a variety of researchers proposed that children have the same tendency to reach language milestones, but Genie was left alone in her room that made her to remain silent.
Genie (the wild child) was ignored by her parents that resulted in the failure of acquiring and learning a language. However, she made significant progress in developing basic social and non-verbal communication skills, when she was rescued from her parents. This indicates that both biological and environmental factors have an influential role in the language acquisition of a child. For instance, Genie was able to learn and use the new language, but she failed to completely acquire a first language.

Conclusion

Conclusively, it has become visible that both biological and environmental factors have significant importance in the acquisition of a language. Even though, children from all over the world have the tendency to acquire language at the same pace, but the failure of parents to provide attention might result in the failure of the child to acquire first language just like the Wild Child.

References

General Psychology. (2014). How Do We Acquire and Develop Language? Retrieved from http://general-psychology.weebly.com/how-do-we-acquire-and-develop-language.html
Genie (Secret of the Wild Child) [Motion Picture]. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmdycJQi4QA