The terrifying case of genie and the critical period for language learning �

We need to talk about Jeannie because the

really awful, terrifying things that

happened to that poor little girl taught

us so incredibly much about

language development in humans. So

Jeannie was a little girl born to a very

unwell family. She was the fourth

child, but only the second living.

So her mother was legally blind

from neurological damage, and her father

had a lot of mental issues. He.

Didn't like noise. He didn't like

hearing noise. So when the couple had

their first child and it cried, he put it

in the trash and it died of pneumonia at

10 weeks old. This sets the stage

for the life that Ginny would lead. She

has an older brother and then another

child that died of some kind of blood

incapability at birth. But the older

brother still survived and he was lucky

because his grandmother took him for a

little while. And

yeah, that is probably what saved his

life, even though he was eventually given

back to his family. Now the father was

super abusive. Beat his wife, beat his

son, beat his his daughter Jeannie. Beat

them all. But when Jeannie was about 1

1/2 years old, her father started to get

incredibly unhinged and he

started locking Jeannie in a dark

room all day, strapping her in a

straight jacket to a child toilet

for the entire day. He would only feed

her baby purees and baby cereal and

things like that, and would do so

intermittently. She was very

malnourished. And then at night he

would take her off the child's toilet and

strap her to a sleeping bag in a cot with

a metal grate over the top. He didn't

allow anyone to make noises

in the house, so no one ever spoke

to Jeannie. She never heard any

linguistic input. She never heard

anything. And if she made noises, she was

beaten viciously eventually. At the

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

room for 12 years,

Jeannie's mother was finally able to

leave the house with her child, and

social services figured out that there

was something up and they rescued

Jeannie. By the time doctors got to her,

they tried to help her learn language,

and unfortunately it was near

impossible to get Jeannie to learn

language the way that you and I speak it,

the way that a child speaks it. She

never quite acquired any kind of

sophisticated language. She can say a

couple of words, but not many, and she

can't put them together in a very formal

sentence. What this taught

us, what Jeannie and this horrible

experience taught us, was that there is a

critical period of acquisition for

language where a child's brain is

open to the reception of language, but if

it doesn't get it, the child will never

learn. Formal language in their life. So

there you have it, folks. Children

require linguistic input, language,

someone to talk to them before the age

of seven at the very latest. But

those early years are incredibly crucial.

And the best way to teach your child

language is to speak to them, is to have

a conversation with them, even if you

don't think they understand, and even if

their response is to you is babble.

Do Genie a favour and talk to your kids.

as much as you can, all the time.