Feral children
Dec. 16th, 2003 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azziriaFascinating prog on TV last night about feral children (children who have been severely neglected or raised by animals).
One thing the scientists have learnt from these children is that we have a window of opportunity as very young children to learn language. If a child isn't talked to and doesn't hear language when very young (we're talking under 3 here), they can never learn to speak. They can learn words, but will never master stringing them together to communicate, will never master grammar. The part of the brain that deals with grammar actually shrinks away and can never redevelop.
The other thing these children never really learn is how to develop appropriate personal relationships with other people. Again, the complexity of how to relate to others in the intensely social setup we humans have is something you apparently have to learn when still very very young. And if you don't get the social contact, your brain doesn't develop properly.
CAT scans of the brains of these feral children show how incredibly different they are from those of 'normal' children.
But the thing that came over most strongly to me from the programme was that the most important thing the psychiatrists etc working with these children did was touch them. Hold them, give them simple physical affection. Above everything else this seems to be what children need to develop normally.
When I think how much time I've spent (and still spend) hugging and cuddling my children (even my too-big-for-all-that-soppy-stuff 6-year-old boy) I'm so glad I've done it.
One thing the scientists have learnt from these children is that we have a window of opportunity as very young children to learn language. If a child isn't talked to and doesn't hear language when very young (we're talking under 3 here), they can never learn to speak. They can learn words, but will never master stringing them together to communicate, will never master grammar. The part of the brain that deals with grammar actually shrinks away and can never redevelop.
The other thing these children never really learn is how to develop appropriate personal relationships with other people. Again, the complexity of how to relate to others in the intensely social setup we humans have is something you apparently have to learn when still very very young. And if you don't get the social contact, your brain doesn't develop properly.
CAT scans of the brains of these feral children show how incredibly different they are from those of 'normal' children.
But the thing that came over most strongly to me from the programme was that the most important thing the psychiatrists etc working with these children did was touch them. Hold them, give them simple physical affection. Above everything else this seems to be what children need to develop normally.
When I think how much time I've spent (and still spend) hugging and cuddling my children (even my too-big-for-all-that-soppy-stuff 6-year-old boy) I'm so glad I've done it.
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Date: 2003-12-16 12:46 pm (UTC)I've noticed this with DS's after-school club. They're very anti-touching. It's all this paedophilia and HSE stuff. I think not touching a child does a lot of harm.