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[Music]
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officials in the Los Angeles suburb of
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Arcadia have taken custody of a 13 year
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old girl and they say was kept in such
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isolation by her parents that she never
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even learned to talk the girl still wore
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diapers and was uttering infantile
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noises social worker discovered the case
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two weeks ago but the authorities are
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hoping she still may have a normal
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learning capacity among the first to see
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the child was Temple City Detective
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Sergeant Franklin Lee I took one look at
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her and she wasn't much bigger than my
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daughter Beverly who had just turned
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seven about three months earlier and I
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really had a hard time conceiving of the
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idea that the child was the age that she
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was the child obviously had been
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severely mistreated after she was still
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in diapers didn't walk she had no verbal
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skills at all at that point
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the last time I was on this street was
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probably thirty years ago
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there it is
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hasn't changed much the backyard looks
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the same it's all weights indeed grass
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[Music]
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looks the same as it did in 1970
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the house belonged to Clark Wiley a
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loner Clark had turned his back on the
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world after his mother had been killed
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in a hit-and-run accident after the
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accident things in the Wiley house would
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never be the same again
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[Music]
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the house was completely dark all the
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blinds were drawn there were no toys no
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clothes nothing that would ever indicate
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to you that a child of any age lived
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there
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the child's bezel wires back in this
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corner
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that was the bedroom the windows were
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covered to about the 3 inches from the
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top which were the only natural light
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that had ever come in there and all the
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time the child was in the bedroom
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entire furnishings as a bedroom consists
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of a cage with a pulldown chicken wire
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lid and some type of piece of wire
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securing it when they closed it down
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there was a potty chair with some kind
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of homemade strapping device for 13
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years Jeannie had spent her nights
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locked in bed her days strapped to a
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potty chair during that time Clark had
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ordered his son John and wife Irene
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never to talk to her
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in her darkened room she had led a life
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of near total isolation
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even close neighbors were completely
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unaware of her presence
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and the police was here and they came to
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question us that's when we found found
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out you know what happened and you know
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nobody no-nobody knew before
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we found out what happened and how she
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was three that I mean everybody was
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shocked and just unbelievable for their
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whole marriage Clark had imposed his
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will on Irene and blind with cataracts
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she had been too scared to resist but
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one day something broke while Clark was
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out buying groceries she seized her
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chance and fled it was the first glimpse
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the world would have of Clark and
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Irene's dark secret I met Clark and I
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really Temple City sheriff's station
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they were both under arrest at the time
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when we interviewed Irene she would make
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no mention of the family whatsoever
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particularly the children he attempted
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along with my partner to interview Clark
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he refused to talk to us he wouldn't say
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a word he never even acknowledged that
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he understood what we were talking about
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mr. Wylie why did you keep your daughter
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mr. Wylie has no comment no we haven't
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had time to discuss the charge we
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haven't even seen them unable to face
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the truth Clark took matters into his
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own hands
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[Music]
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this morning the authorities reported
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the 70 year old Clark Wylie shot and
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killed himself just before he was to go
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to the court of the arraign for firing
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after 13 years Jeannie was at last free
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and for scientists she was just the case
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they had been waiting for for 13 years
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Jeannie had lived a life of complete
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isolation raised in a city bedroom
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Jeannie was as much a feral child as if
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she had been brought up by wolves at 13
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she was the size of a six year old worst
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of all she had never been taught to
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speak the question now could she ever
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learn
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[Music]
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Jeanne's case was so scientifically
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important that the government funded a
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team of scientists to help answer the
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many questions she posed
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two of the scientists who would become
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especially important to Jeannie or child
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psychologist James Kent and linguist
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Susan Curtis neither had ever
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encountered a case as Extreme as
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Jeannie's we looked at her yes he as a
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newborn in a way even though we know she
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hadn't she came with 13 years of
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memories and experience it's not all of
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them wonderful most of them not I think
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so we thought we needed to start
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exposure to what the world is gonna be
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like for her outside the hospital bed -
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Jeannie everything was a new experience
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we did what you would do with with your
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own kids if you were introducing into
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the world you take them out and hold
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them up and show them sort of judged
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from how they reacted to whether this
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was too much or not enough and you could
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move on and do the next thing
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Jeannie was making amazing progress as
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the experts looked on they realized that
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she might be the answer to the question
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that had troubled science for so long so
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we seized this wonderful opportunity
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that she provided us in as loving away
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as we could but using it to finally get
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our chance to address head-on specific
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hypotheses and notions about human
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language and the human mind these
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hypotheses were based on the latest
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ideas about how children's brains
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developed according to the theory young
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children could only learn certain things
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at certain times called critical periods
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language was one of these critical
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periods and according to the theory
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genie who was now a teenager had missed
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her chance forever
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but incredibly Jeannie seemed to be
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proving the theory wrong as this footage
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shows Jeannie was blossoming not only
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was she delighted by the world around
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her but she was learning the words for
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the new things she was seeing
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she was extremely interested in
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everything around her she wanted to know
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the word for everything around her she
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wanted to engage people all around her
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she was not mentally deficient her
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lights were on and everyone who worked
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with her from teachers to therapists to
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me knew that she was not [ __ ] it was
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clear as day and as she began to learn
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more more words hundreds of words much
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more rapidly than they ever imagined
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and swinging them together I began to
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think maybe I will be wrong maybe she
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will be the one that will prove that
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this hypothesis is incorrect but Jeanne
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could not escape the effects of her past
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so easily she was still haunted by her
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traumatic upbringing trapped by the
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memories of the awful fate she had
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suffered and linguistically she had
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stopped making progress
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she learned tons of which she has an
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enormous vocabulary but language is not
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words language is grammar languages
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sentences how do you make a sentence
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what can be a sentence what is esand
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how do you automatically know something
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sentence
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so wasn't because he was cognitively
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deficient in other respects it was
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because she was cognitively deficient in
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this island of human mind the mental
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faculty that we called Grammer at the
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time Jeannie was found brain science was
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in its infancy but today we have a much
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clearer picture of what actually happens
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in cases of extreme neglect like genies
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in genies brand the left part of her her
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brand they her cortex that that has
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those neural systems responsible for
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speech and language because she never
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heard any words and because she was
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never taught spoken to very often they
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didn't get stimulated and because they
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weren't stimulated they got smaller and
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less functional and disconnected and
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ultimately that part of the brain
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literally physically changes today with
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modern imaging technology we can
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actually see what happens in the brains
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of feral children and the effects are
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shocking without normal stimulation
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their brains are smaller and malformed
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and the earlier this neglect begins and
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the longer it carries on the worse the
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damage will be starved of stimulation
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Jeanne's brain had simply not developed
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the capacity for language and now that
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she was a teenager she would never be
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able to learn despite this Genie
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continued to be a closed part of
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everyone's life but there was more
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trouble ahead
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[Music]
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children have to belong to somebody when
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they grow up and she was still a child
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and she needed a family to belong to so
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that's what we would have like a family
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that she could belong to what happened
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what did happen is about the worst
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outcome I think we would have envisioned
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on her 18th birthday
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Janie moved back with her mother Irene
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into the house in which she had been so
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terribly abused but after only a few
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weeks it was clear that Irene couldn't
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cope from here Jeannie was moved into
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State care with terrible consequences I
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was a student and people wouldn't listen
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to me people who needed to intervene did
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not listen to me and so I spent lots and
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lots of time on the phone pleading with
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people to intervene and save this person
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who had had the worst experience of
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deprivation and isolation in all with
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her medical history Jeannie moved from
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home to home sometimes with the very
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people who served as her therapists this
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potential conflict of interests raised
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tensions among the many people involved
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in her life and a tug of war erupted
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over the child as Jeannie's condition
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deteriorated Irene decided that Susan
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Curtis and the other academics had
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become too close to Jeannie a lawsuit
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followed
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I went from being asked to be her
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guardian - one week later being
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prevented from seeing her or phoning her
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and ever since then I've been prevented
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from having any contact at all so
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although I have lots of you know that
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I'm still a scientist I'm still
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interested in knowing things about her
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language now and all kinds of
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interesting things I would like to
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pursue academically primarily I would
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just like to see her now a ward of the
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court
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Jeanne lives in an adult care home
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somewhere in Los Angeles prevented from
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seeing the people who once meant so much
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to her
