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Chicken Girl Essay

Feral children

‘A child brought up without the influences of other humans’

We studied the Case of the Portuguese Chicken Girl in class.

Isabel was not brought up by her mother like a normal child. She was, from birth confined to the chicken coop where she was fed bread and chicken feed.

Neighbours did not want to interfere with a family matter and so nothing was don’t about this. Isabel cannot speak, is like a wild animal, not toilet trained, and has a dwarfed form. She communicates in repetitive calls and beats her arms and drums her feet to express emotion-closely imitating the chickens, which were the only thing to teach her how to behave in her early years. This study shows us that the surroundings around a child in its early years can affect the way in which a child grows up to behave. If this girl had been brought up by a mother who was perhaps ‘normal’ maybe the child would have been like a child is usually like. This shows that early socialisation affects the way we are as teenagers and adults.

This kind of thing wouldn’t happen in Britain, as this would be considered severe child abuse and would definitely be reported.

I think if Isabel is to learn to lead a normal life she must be surrounded by humans that can teach her the correct way to behave as a human being, and bring her up as you would a normal child, and give the girls what she has been deprived of. Love and attention. And food!

I think this story supports nurture arguments of human behaviour, because if it were nature the child would act like a normal child with a normal child, even though she was brought up in a chicken coop.

Christie Leat-Bowen 10DP