There was a TV programme recently on the subject of feral children - children who had been abandoned by their parents for a variety of reasons or who had been forcibly deprived of human contact. Two of the children had been about 13 years of age when they were discovered. One girl had been locked in a room and had been deprived of any sensory stimulation. The other had been abandoned and had been looked after by a pack of dogs. Both children were obviously severely affected by their experiences (one committed suicide), but it was discovered that they could very quickly learn hundreds of individual words but could not learn to form sentences as this process of language acquisition had not been stimulated. Brain scans showed a marked difference to those of 'stimulated' children.
The theory postulated was that there is a window of opportunity in children for language acquisition and that if this window was not used/ triggered, language use would be impaired. It would seem that 5/6 years of age is the upper limit for stimulation and to demonstrate this, the programme focused on a little boy called Edek, who had been discovered alone and with dogs when he was about 5. He seemed to be able to use sentences, but he was hesitant and there was some concern about whether they had disocvered him too late.
I found the programme profoundly moving but also very interesting, but it did seem to give credence to the idea of inherited language that must be triggered. There's an obvious link to be made between this idea and the many Primary teachers who can easily spot the children whose parents talk to or even read to them at home!
If you get a chance to see this programme, do. It also made me reflect upon the relative kindness of dogs compared to that of humans. The little boy, Edek, had been ignored by all the neighbours who had merely turned a blind eye to his plight; it was the dogs who aided him.
