Garces, Leoj DevPsych BS Psychology 1C March 11, 2022 Reflection on the case of Genie Wiley For starters, I often heard stories about child abuse and neglect, but this is the first time I’ve heard about the case of Genie Wiley. To be honest, it wasn’t a huge shock to me because I already know how vile and evil the human race can be. At this point, you can already prove the biblical definition of hell wrong, because what can be worse than the despicable things happening in our planet? But maybe that’s just me. Nonetheless, I still feel angered about what happened to Genie. According to the article, Genie was a girl with basically no childhood. She had been locked in a room, tied to a chair for more than a decade. She was deprived of toys, education, and other necessities. Her family didn’t even bother to potty train her. Genie had also been abused by her very own father, and even though she lived with other family members like her mother and brother, all of them turned a blind eye to this. It could be because they were also abused and felt completely powerless. They barely spoke to Genie, and the rare times that her father interacted with her, it was only to make animalistic noises. What made me angry is the fact that her father said that the world will never understand. The way he said it, it seems that he thinks there’s a good and acceptable reason behind what he did to his daughter. He’s probably mentally ill but of course, that will never be an excuse. This just proves that aggression is a primary driving force of humans and we’re bound to destroy not only things, but fellow human beings as well. Moving on, Genie was eventually discovered and exposed to the world. Scientists and researchers alike took an interest in her. They had a hard time assessing her abilities upon her initial arrival because she could not speak at all. They began helping her by teaching her the most basic things like how to dress and how to use the toilet, which she rapidly improved at. She was also provided with a therapist. Genie made progress in a lot of areas but her language ability remained poor, even after several years. She was unable to use grammar. Genie’s situation served as evidence for the critical period hypothesis. A critical period is a short period where an organism is perceptive of external stimuli and able to acquire new skills. Linguist Lenneberg stated that the critical period for language acquisition is until around the age of twelve. After this, the brain’s organization becomes fixed, making it impossible for someone to learn and use language in a completely functional way. However, there was also a theory that is the opposite of Lenneberg’s. It suggests that language procurement cannot be explained by learning alone. According to Chomsky, we are born with a language acquisition device that gives us the natural ability to understand how language works. As for me, Genie’s case leans more on the theory of critical period, because they never really found out whether Genie had some degree of intellectual disability or not. I think Genie’s childhood, or the lack thereof, had the most impact on her life, even later on. Paternal love is very fundamental, but she only had an abusive father who barely spoke to her, as well as a mother and a brother who refused to care. This is why when she experienced abuse and neglect again in her later years, she regressed to silence. It was some sort of relapse. She was also robbed of normal adolescent development. As a teenager, she was constantly surrounded by people from the scientific field. As a consequence, she never really got to interact with people in her age range. This also darts back to her childhood, because abuse and neglect can take away the ability of one person to form meaningful bonds. They let her have fun at some point, but she didn’t get to do the things normal teenagers do. Her education only consisted of learning words, and she never got past that. Hence, when a psychiatrist visited her when she was in her late twenties, it was found that she had been silent, depressed, and chronically institutionalized. It’s cruel that for the most part, people only ever saw her as a case study. Despite everything, Genie is admirable because it seems that she had a kind heart. She didn’t resort to any bad deeds. People even saw her as someone adventurous. Genie, just like any other person, deserved to be loved and cared for. She deserved a healthy and uplifting environment filled with genuine people in every phase of her life. I’m not very fond of kids, but I know that as a future clinician, I will be dealing with them. And at the end of the day, they’re just kids – I was once a kid too. My mother is a single parent, but I never really experienced neglect much less abuse during my childhood, and I am very grateful for this. Not everyone experiences that even if I wish that were the case, which is why I want to give back the love and care to children like Genie. To do that, the first step is to research more about them. There are individual differences, so it is essential to have the ability to differentiate one case from the other. It will also help me identify what kind of intervention I will use on the child. Next, I will listen and talk to them. I am willing to go as far as playing with them, just to make them feel at ease – only if it is allowed. That way, they can slowly but surely open up to me. I want them to see me as a safe space. I will also teach them about emotions. I will tell them that experiencing happiness, sadness, and anger is normal and it’s okay to feel any of those. I will constantly check up on their emotions, and teach them healthy coping mechanisms. Furthermore, I know very well that progress is not linear; this is even more so with kids. I will be as patient as possible and guide them every step of the way. These children tend to be asocial, not knowing how to interact with others, so I think it is also important to teach them social behaviors and cues. From a wider perspective, it has always been my goal to contribute to making mental health care here in the Philippines more accessible. To be able to do so, I will join organizations that support this cause before I even turn into a licensed clinician. There are a lot of children who experience abuse. However, not all of them are fortunate enough to get proper help because of the cost or availability. To conclude this essay, allow me to say that the story of Genie Wiley was gut-wrenching. It made me realize and feel a lot of things, and I even teared up at some point in the process of writing this paper. On another note, I also learned some technical stuff concerning Developmental Psychology. All of those things aside, one thing is for sure – no one deserves to experience what Genie went through. I hope for more people to become aware of her case and acquire the same lessons I learned from it.
