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Socialization of Children

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Socialization

After reading the case study given to us in class, reading chapter 3 on Socialization and watching ‘The Secret of the Wild Child,’ I believe it is possible to socialize a child after isolation and maltreatment, but only to a certain extent and never to the equivalent state of a ‘normal’ upbringing. The extent is dependent on many variables. The first being how long the child was neglected or isolated. I believe the younger a child is when the isolation ends, the easier or further socialized the child can become. I do not believe a child isolated for any lengthy period of time is ever going to be considered ‘normal.’ According to our textbook and the documentary children who have been isolated have smaller, more underdeveloped brains than those who have been loved, stimulated, taught and spoken to. These children with underdeveloped brains are much farther behind in all cognitive abilities, and parts of their brains may never develop fully. The brain is a muscle like any other part of the body, and if it is not ‘fed’ or exercised, or used, then it atrophies. Atrophy can happen to the point of no longer being able to use that portion of your body and I feel this may be the case with these studies. A malnourished brain therefore, may never fully recover from the neglect which has occurred. As was stated in the case of Genie and the ‘wild child’ of France, these children, while understanding of vocabulary, could not form a complete sentence in the language in which they were being taught. They were not able to think abstractly or cognitively in this way. They are in essence mentally disabled. And unfortunately for all the children in these case studies, the development and love and work that went into trying to socialize these children ended for different reasons and they all relapsed; or in the case on our handout,

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