00:00:01
children are precious to humankind
00:00:05
we satisfy our innate desire to nurture
00:00:08
and carry on our bloodline through our
00:00:11
progeny our children in turn rely on us
00:00:15
for love and survival what happens to a
00:00:19
child that's been abandoned by all who
00:00:21
are charged with protecting him and left
00:00:24
to fend for himself in the wild or when
00:00:28
a girl grows up in solitary confinement
00:00:30
in her own family home never knowing
00:00:34
love or social interaction since the
00:00:39
earliest of time such stories were
00:00:41
thought to be nothing more than myth
00:00:44
could there be any truth to the lore of
00:00:47
feral children
00:00:54
the word feral means wild are
00:00:57
undomesticated it brings to mind the
00:00:59
myth of Romulus the founder of Rome and
00:01:02
his twin brother Remus who were raised
00:01:04
by a wolf or that of Tarzan who lived
00:01:08
among animals in the wild for centuries
00:01:11
feral children have posed questions that
00:01:14
go to the very heart of what it is to be
00:01:16
human one of the central questions in
00:01:19
all of science that has to do with
00:01:24
humans is are we a product of our genes
00:01:28
or are we a product of our experience
00:01:31
the old nature-nurture issue feral
00:01:33
children tap into this because they are
00:01:37
the natural experiment that we're not
00:01:39
allowed to carry out they are the
00:01:43
children who go through extraordinary
00:01:46
circumstances at which no one could
00:01:49
naturally create but the fascination I
00:01:53
think actually originates in these sort
00:01:55
of primal ideas about the difference
00:01:58
between humans and animals
00:02:01
part of being a human is being brought
00:02:03
up by him you're not brought up by
00:02:06
humans are you completely human and I
00:02:10
think in some of these cases that's the
00:02:12
issue that we're doing
00:02:19
one of the most extraordinary cases ever
00:02:21
should recently come to light into
00:02:23
Ukraine Oksana Malaya was born in
00:02:27
November 1983 according to medical
00:02:30
records she was a healthy child so how
00:02:34
did Oksana become more like a dog than a
00:02:37
human being
00:02:40
her parents were alcoholics and one
00:02:43
night too drunk to care
00:02:45
they left Oksana outside looking for
00:02:50
warm the three-year-old crawled into the
00:02:52
farm kennel and curled up with the
00:02:54
mongrel dog that probably saved her life
00:03:00
but while the dog helped her survive her
00:03:04
time in the kennel also had awful
00:03:06
consequences for the next five years she
00:03:11
would spend her life living as a dog
00:03:15
[Music]
00:03:24
no bottomless puzzle reformer she was
00:03:27
more like a little dog than a human
00:03:29
child first of all she couldn't speak or
00:03:31
she could hardly speak and actually the
00:03:34
purpose of speaking what she didn't
00:03:36
think it was necessary to speak at all
00:03:37
akia what pretty wish could do a shoe
00:03:40
she knew was the wooden man wore the
00:03:44
other hard he'll stop yeah children can
00:03:47
copy the habits of the creatures around
00:03:48
them if those creatures human beings
00:03:51
they become like human beings not
00:03:52
stylish but as you know she was
00:03:54
surrounded by dogs
00:03:55
he's also he became more like a dog
00:04:08
but surely the story of Oksana is a
00:04:11
rarity the product of alcoholic parents
00:04:14
in a poor and depressed part of the
00:04:16
world incredibly it was seemed not
00:04:20
throughout history children have been
00:04:22
abandoned by their parents most died
00:04:24
quickly but some the survivors have
00:04:27
resorted to extraordinary means to stay
00:04:30
alive
00:04:32
how they have survived and who they
00:04:34
become our questions that have long
00:04:36
fascinated scientists but understanding
00:04:39
these children has been a slow and
00:04:41
difficult process
00:04:44
very very good clinicians and
00:04:46
researchers have with the tools that
00:04:48
they had in their day and age they tried
00:04:51
to understand what happened but because
00:04:54
it's such a complex set of phenomenon
00:04:57
our understanding has been limited and
00:05:00
it's incrementally from generation to
00:05:03
generation generation we've had better
00:05:04
tools to better understand what happens
00:05:06
when these children the first
00:05:09
scientifically documented case occurred
00:05:11
in 1800 in France it would send
00:05:14
shockwaves throughout civilized Europe
00:05:23
[Music]
00:05:28
the scientific study of feral children
00:05:31
began in the most improbable of
00:05:33
circumstances on a cloudy afternoon in
00:05:38
southwest France two hunters were out in
00:05:41
the woods looking for deer it had been a
00:05:44
long day and they hadn't caught anything
00:05:46
but their luck was about to change
00:05:49
[Music]
00:06:00
for years scared villagers had talked of
00:06:04
a strange wild child that lurked in the
00:06:06
forest he had been caught twice before
00:06:12
but had always managed to escape this
00:06:18
time however he wouldn't get away
00:06:32
news of the capture spread fast in Paris
00:06:35
one young doctor jean 8r was especially
00:06:38
interested the boy was brought to Paris
00:06:45
most of the city's medical professionals
00:06:47
quickly decided that the boy now called
00:06:50
Victor was nothing more than an idiot
00:06:52
but something about him captivated HR
00:06:55
the first thing which is truly
00:06:57
remarkable arica is his extremely
00:07:00
scientific approach to reporting what he
00:07:03
did he gives a wonderful wealth of
00:07:08
detail about the child what the child
00:07:11
did when he tried certain things so he
00:07:15
is very clearly linked into a tradition
00:07:19
which were still involved with now the
00:07:23
modern scientific study of feral
00:07:25
children had begun for 8r there were two
00:07:28
tests of what it meant to be human the
00:07:31
ability to feel empathy and to use
00:07:33
language Victor could do neither and so
00:07:36
was innate our thighs scarcely human
00:07:43
no Senora at first he was wild and hard
00:07:47
to control but slowly
00:07:49
dr. 8r and his housekeeper madame guerin
00:07:51
started making progress a card belief in
00:07:56
love and kindness seemed to be working
00:08:02
but after his years alone in the wood a
00:08:05
car knew that Victor still craves for
00:08:07
the wild
00:08:10
every day they would walk together and
00:08:12
with every day Viktor became less wild
00:08:18
and eventually madame guerin
00:08:21
was able to take over what were for
00:08:23
victor some of his happiest times he
00:08:28
loved nature but he also seemed to be
00:08:30
showing real feelings for the people
00:08:31
around him I think that joint have
00:08:36
understood the importance of parental
00:08:39
love and so he put Victor in a situation
00:08:44
where he had in essence a substitute
00:08:48
mother Madame Donna and she played the
00:08:52
role of mother she understood the
00:08:54
importance of constant care and
00:08:58
understood intuitively how important it
00:09:02
is to touch people
00:09:06
and in a month that followed there was
00:09:09
even more progress
00:09:12
Victor enjoyed helping madame guerin and
00:09:15
had learned to lay the table but one
00:09:21
lunchtime he was laying the table as
00:09:23
usual when madame guerin started crying
00:09:28
her husband had recently died
00:09:32
incredibly Victor's seemed to understand
00:09:38
quietly he simply removed the place
00:09:41
setting
00:09:47
this was the breakthrough 8r had been
00:09:50
waiting for
00:09:51
Victor's seem to be showing real empathy
00:09:54
and understanding at last
00:10:06
by putting away the place delays he was
00:10:10
showing that he could empathize with my
00:10:12
hunger and he realized that he'd made a
00:10:14
mistake that his mistake had had hurt
00:10:17
her I think in by doing that he was
00:10:20
showing his ability to put himself in a
00:10:22
position of another human being
00:10:23
something which when he was first fought
00:10:25
two pirates would have been impossible
00:10:27
Victor had passed the first of eight ARS
00:10:30
tests nervous but excited eight I
00:10:33
realized that it was Now or Never
00:10:35
it was time for Victor to learn to talk
00:10:39
[Music]
00:10:42
but before he could talk a car wanted to
00:10:46
know that mr. could recognized sounds to
00:10:49
test this he blindfolded him and gave
00:10:51
him a drum and a bell it was a game
00:10:56
Victor loved and understood immediately
00:10:58
for a car this was just the start he and
00:11:01
wanted did this mean that Victor would
00:11:04
finally be able to master language
00:11:06
[Music]
00:11:08
a drum is one thing but language is
00:11:15
infinitely more complex before he would
00:11:17
be able to talk ate on you that Victor
00:11:20
would have to master his vowel sounds
00:11:22
through the building blocks of all
00:11:24
language oh how clever the God but this
00:11:32
time Victor was at a complete loss to
00:11:34
him it was all nothing more than a game
00:11:40
a car could see his dreams for Victor
00:11:42
disappearing before his eyes and for the
00:11:45
first time ever lost his temper with the
00:11:47
boy no
00:11:53
but it was no good a car realized that
00:11:56
Victor just couldn't make sense of the
00:11:58
sounds that other children take for
00:12:00
granted without this how could he ever
00:12:05
be expected to talk it's how I felt that
00:12:09
to be a human being and in the fullest
00:12:10
possible sense you had to be sociable
00:12:12
you had to be language using had to be
00:12:15
measured
00:12:15
orderly artificial and when you realize
00:12:19
he was unable to obtain that I think you
00:12:22
lose interest and really was undivided
00:12:26
for the next twenty years
00:12:28
Victor would live with madame guerin
00:12:30
happy but abandoned by the man who had
00:12:33
tried so hard to save him with Victor a
00:12:36
car had shown that it was possible to
00:12:38
bring a feral child back into society
00:12:41
but with language the ultimate test he
00:12:44
had failed despite this interest in
00:12:47
feral children continued unabated in
00:12:51
1828 a young boy kaspar hauser was found
00:12:55
lost and alone in Germany
00:12:58
his background is much of a mystery as
00:13:01
Victor's and as the century wore on more
00:13:04
reports were appearing from distant
00:13:06
corners of the globe from India in
00:13:08
particular came a series of stories
00:13:11
about children living with Wolves
00:13:13
distant and unproven to scientists they
00:13:16
seemed little more than myth then in
00:13:18
1930 a properly documented case of two
00:13:21
girls living the Wolf Pack came to light
00:13:24
American scientists were particularly
00:13:26
interested but before the girls could
00:13:29
get to the United States both died of
00:13:31
fever
00:13:34
one of the scientists who had been
00:13:36
waiting to see them was primatologist
00:13:38
Winthrop Kellogg despite this setback he
00:13:42
was determined to prove that nurture was
00:13:44
the dominant influence in child
00:13:45
development
00:13:48
Caleb knew that the perfect way to prove
00:13:50
his theory was to engineer a feral child
00:13:53
to bring together baby put them on
00:13:55
wolves and to see what happened clearly
00:13:58
is the one experiment he couldn't do
00:13:59
this is the forbidden experiment so what
00:14:02
he decided to do was the next best thing
00:14:03
which was to reverse back in forbidden
00:14:06
experiment and to bring an aide into
00:14:08
human family for the next year the
00:14:11
chimpanzee gua would spend every day
00:14:13
with Kellogg's young son Donald as
00:14:16
Kellogg had predicted Gua could learn
00:14:19
many human characteristics but the
00:14:21
experiment had unforeseen consequences
00:14:24
Calabrese also did this experiment on
00:14:26
the chimpanzee an actual time became
00:14:29
equal in terms on his thumb particularly
00:14:32
in the way which is done with apples or
00:14:34
not speaking out language rather than
00:14:36
learning words
00:14:38
Donald was learning the barks and yelps
00:14:40
of a chimpanzee horrified Kellogg called
00:14:43
off the experiment almost by accident
00:14:45
Kellogg had shown the vulnerability of
00:14:48
early childhood how the smallest changes
00:14:51
in environment can have unforeseen and
00:14:53
long-lasting effect it was a subject
00:14:56
that continued to intrigued scientists
00:14:59
1860s American clay colleges Harry
00:15:02
Harlow continued where Kellogg has left
00:15:04
off
00:15:07
Paulo's work was really seminal in this
00:15:09
entire field because he showed the
00:15:12
crucial importance of the caregiving
00:15:14
relationship between a mother and an
00:15:17
infant and how the physical stimulation
00:15:19
literally the physical contact with the
00:15:22
caregiver has profound impact of health
00:15:25
development at birth Carlos took baby
00:15:29
monkeys from their mothers they were
00:15:32
then given a choice between a cold wire
00:15:34
monkey with milk or a soft warm monkey
00:15:37
without amazingly they chose the more
00:15:41
comforting figure every time and
00:15:44
socially the effects were devastating
00:15:47
raised in isolation without any love or
00:15:50
encouragement these young monkeys were
00:15:52
scared and confused
00:15:54
Harlow couldn't explain it but something
00:15:56
about this early isolation had damaged
00:15:59
them for life but these were monkeys
00:16:04
would the same be true for a human child
00:16:07
it would be another 20 years before
00:16:10
scientists had a chance to find out and
00:16:12
when they did it would be in the busiest
00:16:15
most urban setting imaginable officials
00:16:19
in the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia
00:16:21
have taken custody of a 13 year old girl
00:16:23
and they say was just in such isolation
00:16:25
by her parents that she never even
00:16:27
learned to talk the girl still wore
00:16:29
diapers and with uttering infantile
00:16:31
noises social worker discovered the case
00:16:33
two weeks ago the authorities are hoping
00:16:35
she still may have a normal learning
00:16:37
capacity
00:16:39
among the first to see the child was
00:16:41
Temple City detective sergeant Franklin
00:16:43
Lee
00:16:45
[Music]
00:16:52
I already knew that a child was 13
00:16:54
minute after years old and I took one
00:16:57
look at her and she wasn't much bigger
00:17:00
than my daughter Beverly who had just
00:17:02
turned seven about three months earlier
00:17:05
and I really had a hard time conceiving
00:17:10
of the idea that the child was the age
00:17:11
that she was the child obviously had
00:17:15
been severely mistreated after she was
00:17:18
still in diapers couldn't walk
00:17:19
she had no verbal skills at all at that
00:17:21
point
00:17:23
[Music]
00:17:26
the last time I was on this street was
00:17:28
probably thirty years ago
00:17:33
but there it is
00:17:36
hasn't changed much the backyard looks
00:17:39
the same it's all we can do grass looks
00:17:44
the same as it did 1970
00:17:47
the house belonged to Clark Wiley a
00:17:50
loner Clark had turned his back on the
00:17:52
world after his mother had been killed
00:17:54
in a hit-and-run accident after the
00:17:57
accident things in a Wiley House would
00:17:59
never be the same again
00:18:01
[Music]
00:18:05
the house was completely dark all the
00:18:08
blinds were drawn there were no toys no
00:18:11
clothes nothing that would ever indicate
00:18:14
a child of any age live there
00:18:18
[Music]
00:18:22
child embezzling was back in this corner
00:18:27
that was the bedroom the windows were
00:18:31
covered to about the three inches from
00:18:33
the top actually the only natural light
00:18:36
that had ever come in there and all the
00:18:37
time the child was in the bedroom entire
00:18:41
furnishings as a bedroom consisted a
00:18:42
cage with a pulldown chicken wire lid
00:18:47
and some type of piece of wire securing
00:18:51
it when they closed it down there was a
00:18:53
potty chair with some kind of homemade
00:18:56
strapping device for 13 years Jeannie
00:19:00
had spent her night locked in bed her
00:19:03
days strapped to a potty chair during
00:19:06
that time Clark had ordered his son John
00:19:09
and wife Irene never to talk to her in
00:19:13
her darkened room she had led a life of
00:19:15
near total isolation
00:19:20
even close neighbors were completely
00:19:22
unaware of her presence
00:19:26
the police was there and they came to
00:19:28
question us that's when we found found
00:19:30
out you know what happens and you know
00:19:33
that they had nobody knows nobody knew
00:19:37
before and when we found out what
00:19:40
happened how she was treated I mean
00:19:42
everybody was shocked and just
00:19:45
unbelievable for their whole marriage
00:19:48
Clark had imposed his will on Irene and
00:19:51
blind with cataracts she had been too
00:19:54
scared to resist but one day something
00:19:56
broke while Clark was out buying
00:19:59
groceries she seized her chance and fled
00:20:01
it was the first glimpse the world would
00:20:03
have of Clark and Irene's dark secret
00:20:05
well I met Clark and I really
00:20:08
temple city sheriff's station they were
00:20:10
both under arrest at the time when we
00:20:12
interviewed Irene she would make no
00:20:15
mention of the family whatsoever
00:20:16
particularly the children I attempted
00:20:20
along with my partner to interview Clark
00:20:22
he refused to talk to us he wouldn't say
00:20:24
a word he never even acknowledged that
00:20:26
he understood what we were talking about
00:20:28
unable to face the truth Clark took
00:20:30
matters into his own hands
00:20:35
this morning the authorities reported
00:20:37
the 70 year old Clark Wiley shot and
00:20:40
killed himself this before he was to go
00:20:41
to the course of the arraigned for child
00:20:43
abuse after 13 years Jeannie was at last
00:20:48
free and for scientists she was just the
00:20:51
case they had been waiting for for 13
00:20:56
years Jeannie had lived a life of
00:20:59
complete isolation raised in a city
00:21:02
bedroom Jeannie was as much a feral
00:21:04
child and if she had been brought up by
00:21:06
one at 13 she was the size of a
00:21:11
six-year-old worst of all she had never
00:21:13
been taught to speak the question now
00:21:16
could she ever learn Janie Cates was so
00:21:23
straight if eclis important that the
00:21:25
government funded a team of Sciences to
00:21:28
help answer the many questions she posed
00:21:33
to of the scientists who would become
00:21:35
especially important to Jeannie or child
00:21:38
psychologist James Kent and linguist
00:21:40
Susan Curtis
00:21:44
neither had ever encountered a case as
00:21:46
Extreme as Feeny
00:21:54
we look at her as he as a newborn in a
00:21:58
way even though we know she had she came
00:22:00
with 13 years of memories and
00:22:02
experiences not all of them wonderful
00:22:04
most of them not I think and so we
00:22:06
thought we needed to start to exposure
00:22:08
to what the world is going to be like
00:22:11
for her outside the hospital bed to
00:22:14
Jeannie everything was a new experience
00:22:18
we did what you would do with with your
00:22:20
own kids if you're reducing into the
00:22:22
world it take them out and hold up and
00:22:24
show them and for the judge from how
00:22:27
they reacted to whether this was too
00:22:28
much or not enough and you could move on
00:22:29
and do the next thing Haney was making
00:22:32
amazing progress as the experts looked
00:22:34
on they realized that she might be the
00:22:37
answer to the question that had troubled
00:22:38
science for so long so we seized this
00:22:44
wonderful opportunity that she provided
00:22:46
us in as loving away as we could but
00:22:50
using it to finally get our chance to
00:22:54
address head on specific hypotheses and
00:22:58
notions about human language and human
00:23:01
mind these hypotheses were based on the
00:23:05
latest ideas about how children's brains
00:23:07
developed according to the theory young
00:23:10
children could only learn certain things
00:23:12
at certain times called critical periods
00:23:16
language was one of these critical
00:23:18
periods and according to the theory
00:23:20
Jeannie who is now a teenager had missed
00:23:23
her chance forever
00:23:26
but incredibly kini seemed to be proving
00:23:29
the theory wrong as this footage shows
00:23:31
genie was blossoming not only was she
00:23:34
delighted by the world around her but
00:23:36
she was learning the word for the new
00:23:38
things she was being
00:23:43
he was extremely interested in
00:23:46
everything around her she wanted to know
00:23:48
the word for everything around her she
00:23:50
wanted to engage people all around her
00:23:53
she was not mentally deficient her
00:23:55
lights were on and everyone who worked
00:23:57
with her from teachers to therapists to
00:24:01
me knew that she was not [ __ ] it was
00:24:05
clear as day and as she began to learn
00:24:09
more more more hundreds of words much
00:24:12
more rapidly than I ever meant and
00:24:15
stringing them together I began to think
00:24:18
maybe I will be wrong maybe she will be
00:24:21
the one that will prove that this
00:24:23
hypothesis is incorrect but Jeanne could
00:24:27
not escape the effects of her path so
00:24:29
easily
00:24:29
she was still haunted by her traumatic
00:24:32
upbringing trapped by the memories of
00:24:34
the awful fate she had suffered and
00:24:36
linguistically she had stopped making
00:24:39
progress
00:24:39
she learned tons of which she has made
00:24:42
enormous vocabulary but men which is not
00:24:45
worried
00:24:45
language is grammar languages sentences
00:24:50
how do you make a sentence what can be
00:24:53
assumed what is assumed how do you
00:24:55
automatically know something soon
00:24:58
so it wasn't because she was cognitively
00:25:00
deficient in other respects it was
00:25:04
because she was cognitively
00:25:06
deficient in this island of human mind
00:25:10
the mental faculty to be called Grammer
00:25:12
at the time Jeannie was found brain
00:25:15
science was in its infancy but today we
00:25:18
have a much clearer picture of what
00:25:19
actually happens in cases of extreme
00:25:21
neglect like genies ingenious brand the
00:25:26
last part of her her brains they her
00:25:28
cortex that that has those neural
00:25:31
systems responsible for speech and
00:25:32
language because she never heard any
00:25:34
words and because she was never taught
00:25:37
spoken to very often they didn't get
00:25:40
stimulated and because they weren't
00:25:42
stimulated they got smaller and less
00:25:46
functional and disconnected and
00:25:48
ultimately that part of the brain
00:25:50
literally physically changes today with
00:25:53
modern imaging technology we can
00:25:55
actually see what happens in the brains
00:25:58
of feral children and the effects are
00:26:00
shocking without normal stimulation
00:26:04
their brains are smaller and malformed
00:26:06
and the earlier this neglect begins and
00:26:08
the longer it carries on the worse the
00:26:11
damage will be starved of stimulation
00:26:14
genes brain has simply not developed the
00:26:16
capacity for language and now that she
00:26:19
was a teenager she would never be able
00:26:21
to learn despite this Genie continued to
00:26:24
be a closed part of everyone's life but
00:26:27
there was more trouble ahead
00:26:32
children have to belong to somebody when
00:26:34
they grow up and she was still a child
00:26:35
and she need a family to belong to so
00:26:38
that's what we would have like a family
00:26:40
she could belong to that's not what
00:26:43
happened unfortunately what did happen
00:26:46
is about the worst outcome I think we
00:26:50
would have envisioned on her 18th
00:26:53
birthday
00:26:53
Janie moved back with her mother Irene
00:26:55
into the house in which she had been so
00:26:57
terribly abused but after only a few
00:27:00
weeks it was clear that Irene couldn't
00:27:02
cope from here Jeannie was moved into
00:27:05
State care with terrible consequences I
00:27:09
was a student and people wouldn't listen
00:27:12
to me people who needed to intervene did
00:27:15
not listen to me and so I spent lots and
00:27:18
lots of time on the phone pleading with
00:27:20
people to intervene and save this person
00:27:23
who had had the worst experience of
00:27:27
deprivation and isolation in all the
00:27:29
crazy medical history Jeannie moved from
00:27:32
home to home sometimes with the very
00:27:34
people who served as her therapists this
00:27:37
potential conflict of interest raised
00:27:39
tensions among the many people involved
00:27:41
in her life and a tug of war erupted
00:27:44
over the child and Janie's condition
00:27:46
deteriorated Irene decided that Susan
00:27:49
Curtis and the other academics had
00:27:51
become too close to Jeannie a lawsuit
00:27:54
followed
00:27:56
I went from being asked to be her
00:27:59
guardian to one week later being
00:28:02
prevented from seeing her or phoning her
00:28:05
and ever since then I've been prevented
00:28:07
from having any contact at all so
00:28:09
although I have lots of you know I'm
00:28:12
still a scientist I'm still interested
00:28:14
in knowing things about her language now
00:28:17
and all kinds of interesting things I
00:28:20
would like to pursue academically
00:28:21
primarily I would just like now a ward
00:28:26
of the court
00:28:27
Jeanne lived in an adult care home
00:28:29
somewhere in Los Angeles prevented from
00:28:32
seeing the people who wanted to meant so
00:28:34
much to her but children like Jeanne
00:28:36
continue to be discovered even today we
00:28:41
actually are seeing an increase in the
00:28:42
number of severely neglected children
00:28:44
who are in physically and socially
00:28:46
isolated environments and have a feral
00:28:49
child like properties
00:28:54
[Music]
00:29:03
in the Ukraine we uncovered an
00:29:06
incredible story nearly is a depressed
00:29:09
and run down town miles from anywhere
00:29:11
before the collapse of the Soviet Union
00:29:14
nearly was a thriving Navy town but now
00:29:17
half the flats are empty and stray dogs
00:29:20
roam the streets but in 1999 social
00:29:24
workers found a situation shocking even
00:29:26
by the standards of near name
00:29:29
on the third floor of this block a four
00:29:33
year old boy called edek was found in a
00:29:35
deserted flat his alcoholic mother was
00:29:39
nowhere to be seen
00:29:41
as the authorities started asking
00:29:43
questions a horrifying picture began to
00:29:46
emerge
00:29:48
while etics younger sister Nadia had
00:29:51
been cared for by neighbors etic had
00:29:53
been forced to look elsewhere for love
00:29:55
and affection without a mother and Eddie
00:30:00
can turn to the local stray dogs for
00:30:03
warmth and protection worse he started
00:30:08
to behave more like a dog than a human
00:30:10
being
00:30:18
well nevikov vodka his behavior a
00:30:21
classic dog's behavior should be can you
00:30:23
take in the food any of his hands and he
00:30:25
was scratching in younger kids and
00:30:26
fighting them two years later
00:30:37
etic is six and lived in a foster home
00:30:39
in the nearest city he has made
00:30:42
remarkable progress but still has many
00:30:44
problems his behavior has improved and
00:30:47
he is better with the other children
00:30:49
but linguistically he is slow doctors
00:30:53
have told us that while etiquette 6 his
00:30:56
language is that of a three-year-old
00:31:00
it seemed that etic was suffering from
00:31:03
many of the same language problems that
00:31:05
it affected Victor and Jeanne so badly
00:31:07
the crucial question
00:31:09
had he been found in time or would he
00:31:12
like them never recover to try and gain
00:31:20
an accurate picture of etics condition
00:31:22
we took a leading language expert
00:31:24
Professor James law to the Ukraine to
00:31:27
evaluate etic there seems to be a lot of
00:31:29
similarities between edit and other
00:31:32
feral children one of the interesting
00:31:34
things is he's been identified by the
00:31:36
younger than some of the more extreme
00:31:38
cases so they were they had had a much
00:31:41
longer extended period of neglect where
00:31:44
it is neglected being pretty acute but
00:31:47
for a finite period of time and then
00:31:49
he's come to this woman very supportive
00:31:51
foster family and that has to be a good
00:31:54
thing I want to start to get a better
00:31:56
picture James spoke with etics foster
00:31:58
mother looking to do it one symbol to
00:31:59
play destroys others to look on for you
00:32:02
so should the suit come poignancy that
00:32:03
rustiness permissible geek giggle what
00:32:06
can we at the beginning he was a wild
00:32:08
child he didn't know anything he didn't
00:32:12
even know what a plate or spoon was or
00:32:15
how we should use them and it took the
00:32:17
monkey making me normally and to get him
00:32:20
to wear clothes and behave normally
00:32:22
but agility door look
00:32:25
picture which is soft some other
00:32:27
painters in the last six months or so
00:32:31
the things had been a bit of a
00:32:32
breakthrough in some way and it's not so
00:32:34
much to do with his language so that I
00:32:36
has been improving its to do is the
00:32:38
ability to relate to other people and
00:32:40
she like empathize with Eddie's
00:32:45
background clear in his mind James could
00:32:47
begin to make a more formal assessment
00:32:49
of etics strengths and weaknesses as the
00:32:55
session progressed it was clear that
00:32:57
edek was reveling in the attention did
00:33:00
you but just how much of an impact had
00:33:03
two years of neglect had on his language
00:33:05
it was time for James to find out take a
00:33:14
picture vodka and a gun Epictetus
00:33:20
exclusive she has my tables present was
00:33:23
liquid at no point could be anything but
00:33:26
don't get a generic entry point to the
00:33:30
elephant and then point to the giraffe
00:33:34
okay it's Nicolas Flamel but does it
00:33:36
offer point to the cat and then to the
00:33:44
bird because it's like a horse I don't
00:33:46
teach belonging smoking oh listen
00:33:54
linguistically etiquette made good
00:33:56
progress and moving from the awful
00:33:58
conditions in a town in which he was
00:34:00
found but the details of his past were
00:34:02
still unclear to get a better picture
00:34:05
James needed to take edek back to merely
00:34:08
the town where he had been so badly
00:34:10
treated by humans that dogs have become
00:34:12
his most faithful companions
00:34:17
as he walked around the village and it
00:34:20
could remember little of the details of
00:34:22
what happened to him but he could
00:34:28
remember some of the places behind the
00:34:30
flat where he had run and slept with the
00:34:33
dogs that had become his family
00:34:39
as he continued Attucks confidence and
00:34:43
memories seem to be improving he wanted
00:34:46
to show Jane the flat where he had lived
00:34:48
with the daughter as weary emerged at
00:34:52
the front of the block we were greeted
00:34:54
by a local delegation somehow the mayor
00:34:58
and police had been alerted to our
00:35:00
presence they claimed that the story
00:35:04
about etic was a lie and demanded we
00:35:06
stopped filming she knows this woman she
00:35:09
painted everything that he was told
00:35:10
about the feminists still too little to
00:35:12
find a few you shouldn't film animated
00:35:14
it was clear that something had happened
00:35:16
here but with the mayor and police is
00:35:19
vigorous denial it was far from certain
00:35:21
exactly what however as we were leaving
00:35:24
the town James was approached by a local
00:35:26
woman who clearly recognized both etic
00:35:29
and Nadia despite the police's
00:35:31
intervention she was determined to tell
00:35:33
him what she had seen when the children
00:35:35
lived in the town so many Catania middle
00:35:38
videos I'm gonna sabaki everybody in the
00:35:41
community where there was fish there was
00:35:43
fish on the floor and the dog was
00:35:44
leaving the conditions was absolutely
00:35:46
awful
00:35:46
we have heard stories that the children
00:35:49
used to play a lot with the dogs with
00:35:51
animals around the place I'm comfortable
00:35:53
no no we suffer physical disabilities
00:35:57
Alicia from the Senate Senate yes with
00:35:59
the children were good friends of the
00:36:01
local dogs and home to this stratum 50
00:36:04
common lived in their flag they were
00:36:06
always your presence we do of the
00:36:08
Restless and a devastating event
00:36:10
but could a young child really live with
00:36:13
dogs and if they could how would this
00:36:16
incredible relationship work animal
00:36:20
expert Steve fryer has worked with dogs
00:36:22
for over 20 years and studied their very
00:36:25
special bond with man the relationship
00:36:27
between domesticated dogs and humans is
00:36:29
really very special and it's almost a
00:36:31
primeval urgent feelings that we get
00:36:34
about salt and I'm sure they have about
00:36:36
us because they've been around us for so
00:36:38
many thousands of years and it's been
00:36:40
passed on to generation after generation
00:36:42
but how would he explain etics
00:36:44
incredible story
00:36:45
I believe food was the issue and the
00:36:49
dogs were coming into the warmth and
00:36:50
security of the apartment and getting
00:36:52
regular food or irregular food so they
00:36:55
must have seen this young child as a
00:36:57
provider for the pack and perhaps pushed
00:36:59
his status up much higher than if he'd
00:37:01
just been a three-year-old child running
00:37:03
around with them dogs are very quick to
00:37:06
learn to seize on an opportunity
00:37:08
services free food source then it would
00:37:11
be a very big bonus in their thinking
00:37:13
capacity at stores this child edit it
00:37:17
seemed was lucky by offering the dog
00:37:20
food and shelter he in return received
00:37:23
the warmth and companionship that
00:37:25
probably saved his life but after only
00:37:27
two years with the dogs he had suffered
00:37:30
serious consequences yah-tchi
00:37:33
but what of oksana she is now 19 but
00:37:36
spent almost 6 years living in a kennel
00:37:38
she was found at eight almost the same
00:37:41
age as Victor
00:37:45
would she ever be able to talk or would
00:37:48
she like Victor and Jeanne before her be
00:37:51
condemned to a life of silence Oksana is
00:38:05
now 19 and lives miles from the nearest
00:38:08
town in a home for the mentally ill when
00:38:13
she was discovered at 8 she couldn't
00:38:14
even talk
00:38:16
according to brain theory Oksana would
00:38:18
have only three or four years to learn
00:38:20
language before she lost the chance
00:38:23
forever in this short time Oksana made
00:38:26
it she can now talk in simple sentences
00:38:29
but she is haunted by the memories of
00:38:31
her terrible past and even now as this
00:38:34
footage shows he can still revert to her
00:38:36
old behavior my mum wanted to have a boy
00:38:47
and she had a gun in his head aside he
00:38:49
threw me out and put me into the kennels
00:38:51
when I was small the dose of breastfeed
00:38:53
in here and later they taught me like
00:38:55
when I was bigger they brought me what
00:38:57
people gave them and they shared it with
00:38:59
me and I wasn't scared of them at all it
00:39:01
was my home so what does the future hold
00:39:04
for Oksana so long your no shame the
00:39:08
only thing we can do is to try and
00:39:09
correct our behavior so she gets used to
00:39:11
living in a human society the best way
00:39:14
to do the young is to try and find a
00:39:15
proper occupation for us also and it
00:39:17
will focus our mind in dogs and animals
00:39:19
would have some sort of useful
00:39:20
occupation but she will never be
00:39:23
considered a normal person
00:39:27
found at 8 Oksana has made amazing
00:39:30
progress but like Victor and Jeanne
00:39:32
before her it seems that her development
00:39:35
has come some way but will now go no
00:39:37
further
00:39:39
you
00:39:44
but what about edit what does his future
00:39:46
hold the earlier children are identified
00:39:51
and something can be done about it even
00:39:53
it is just stabilizing their environment
00:39:55
the better it is for those children my
00:39:59
sense is that the fact that he was
00:40:02
identified when he was four he's going
00:40:05
to stand him in good stead next
00:40:07
linguistically etixx future looks
00:40:09
encouraging
00:40:11
what you're seeing in edit is a really
00:40:15
substantial number of words that he is
00:40:18
now quiet over a relatively short period
00:40:21
of time we also sing his grammar
00:40:23
developing and it seems to be developing
00:40:27
more slowly but of course it always does
00:40:28
develop more slowly and then it would
00:40:30
it'll really take off I'm assuming that
00:40:33
in the next year or so that we would
00:40:36
have what they called a grammar burst
00:40:38
when you get a massive number of new
00:40:41
structures and it looks to me as if a
00:40:44
deck is doing that on his own without
00:40:47
instruction and one would take that to
00:40:49
be a very positive sign but socially
00:40:52
he's likely to find things more
00:40:54
difficult in edits case we probably have
00:41:00
an example of a child who orientates
00:41:05
towards the dogs because being with them
00:41:09
was actually to his advantage I think
00:41:12
it's impossible to underestimate the
00:41:14
impact that this could have in the long
00:41:16
term
00:41:17
if we observe him in these orphanage you
00:41:21
see he attaches to almost anybody
00:41:24
indiscriminately and what is likely to
00:41:27
happen is that he's going to be
00:41:29
vulnerable socially and I think his
00:41:31
personal development is what I would be
00:41:33
most concerned about etic is likely to
00:41:36
suffer the consequences of his early
00:41:38
experiences for many years to come but
00:41:41
it would be wrong to see feral children
00:41:43
simply as hopeless we should look at
00:41:48
these children not with pity but with
00:41:50
awe I mean they're just it's fascinating
00:41:54
that you can go through something like
00:41:56
that and that you would still be willing
00:41:58
after what human beings have done to you
00:42:01
that you'd still be willing to put your
00:42:03
hand out and touch a new person faced
00:42:06
with almost unimaginable situations
00:42:09
feral children have come up with the
00:42:11
best strategies they could to survive
00:42:13
and for the last 200 years science has
00:42:17
tried to understand the mysteries they
00:42:19
posed with Victor a car made the first
00:42:22
steps a process that continued with
00:42:25
Susan curtis's work with teeny and goes
00:42:27
on right up to today with evaluations of
00:42:30
children like oksana and etic we are
00:42:35
continuing to learn more and more about
00:42:37
how to help these children more and more
00:42:39
about how these neglectful experiences
00:42:41
influence their brain but we were just
00:42:44
on a very very very cusp of being able
00:42:49
to be helpful because today we haven't
00:42:51
done a very good job of that
00:42:53
we just haven't understood the brain and
00:42:54
brain development in ways that would
00:42:57
allow us to be as good as we can be and
00:42:59
I think that that's changing and as we
00:43:01
look to the future one thing is certain
00:43:03
the story of feral children is far from
00:43:07
over I think there always will be
00:43:09
stories like this really as long as
00:43:12
adult you know abandoning children
00:43:15
leaving
00:43:15
to their own devices as long as really
00:43:17
adult camp royalty goes on then there
00:43:19
will be feral children
![The COLD WAR, Explained [AP World History Review—Unit 8 Topic 2]](https://ruhnrawpgxrzdrgaohnf.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/video/YtQVkJ973NU/thumbnail.jpg)
