Diego! Diego! The definitive source on outlandish, but possibly true facts is the weekly "Straight Dope Column" in the Chicago Reader, written by Cecil Adams. To sum up Cecil's column, yes, there a few authenticated cases of feral children, but most researchers doubt that any of these were raised by animals, a common misconception. Feral children remain stunted most of their lives, unable to acquire a vocabulary of more than fifty words. See the link below. Fabio
Check out: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_046.html On Fri, 6 Sep 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Maybe the topic of feral children is a bit of target from the armchair > list, but I am curious to see if someone could share their knowedge > about this. Do the stories about feral children -"lost or abandoned > children raised in extreme social isolation, either surviving in the > wild through their own efforts or 'adopted' by animals"- have any > truth behind them or are they just "old wives tales"? I guess the > question should be refined: how much truth is there behind > particularly famous stories of feral children (Amala & Kamala, Victor > the wild boy of Aveyron, Wild Peter, Kaspar Hauser, John Ssabunnya, > the Hessian wolf-boy, etc.)? Most importantly, what are the > conclusions and findings -assuming there is a general consensus- about > them? What are the consequences of extreme social isolation in > children regarding their abilities to develope complex forms of > reasoning and abstract thinking? Is there a critical period for > language acquisition? > > Diego > > >
