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We need to talk about Jeannie because the

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really awful, terrifying things that

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happened to that poor little girl taught

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us so incredibly much about

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language development in humans. So

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Jeannie was a little girl born to a very

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unwell family. She was the fourth

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child, but only the second living.

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So her mother was legally blind

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from neurological damage, and her father

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had a lot of mental issues. He.

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Didn't like noise. He didn't like

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hearing noise. So when the couple had

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their first child and it cried, he put it

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in the trash and it died of pneumonia at

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10 weeks old. This sets the stage

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for the life that Ginny would lead. She

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has an older brother and then another

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child that died of some kind of blood

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incapability at birth. But the older

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brother still survived and he was lucky

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because his grandmother took him for a

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little while. And

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yeah, that is probably what saved his

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life, even though he was eventually given

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back to his family. Now the father was

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super abusive. Beat his wife, beat his

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son, beat his his daughter Jeannie. Beat

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them all. But when Jeannie was about 1

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1/2 years old, her father started to get

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incredibly unhinged and he

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started locking Jeannie in a dark

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room all day, strapping her in a

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straight jacket to a child toilet

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for the entire day. He would only feed

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her baby purees and baby cereal and

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things like that, and would do so

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intermittently. She was very

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malnourished. And then at night he

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would take her off the child's toilet and

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strap her to a sleeping bag in a cot with

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a metal grate over the top. He didn't

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allow anyone to make noises

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in the house, so no one ever spoke

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to Jeannie. She never heard any

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linguistic input. She never heard

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anything. And if she made noises, she was

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beaten viciously eventually. At the

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age of 13 1/2, after being locked in a

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room for 12 years,

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Jeannie's mother was finally able to

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leave the house with her child, and

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social services figured out that there

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was something up and they rescued

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Jeannie. By the time doctors got to her,

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they tried to help her learn language,

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and unfortunately it was near

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impossible to get Jeannie to learn

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language the way that you and I speak it,

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the way that a child speaks it. She

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never quite acquired any kind of

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sophisticated language. She can say a

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couple of words, but not many, and she

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can't put them together in a very formal

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sentence. What this taught

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us, what Jeannie and this horrible

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experience taught us, was that there is a

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critical period of acquisition for

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language where a child's brain is

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open to the reception of language, but if

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it doesn't get it, the child will never

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learn. Formal language in their life. So

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there you have it, folks. Children

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require linguistic input, language,

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someone to talk to them before the age

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of seven at the very latest. But

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those early years are incredibly crucial.

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And the best way to teach your child

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language is to speak to them, is to have

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a conversation with them, even if you

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don't think they understand, and even if

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their response is to you is babble.

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Do Genie a favour and talk to your kids.

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as much as you can, all the time.