Wolf Children

Children left in the wild or otherwise deprived of human contact to not learn how to speak spontaneously, linguistic experts believe. There are now more than 50 recorded cases of ‘wolf children’ - mostly in India - who have been found living among animals. All were mentally retarded and unable to speak. A report on a similar case in the United States was published in 1977. It concerned a young girl known as “Genie’, who had been locked up in her room for 14 years - and who had since made some very limited progress in speaking.