Peter the Wild Boy
Lucas San Pedro
Created on July 1, 2021
Peter the Wild Boy - Language Acquisition
Over 30 million people build interactive content in Genially.
Check out what others have designed:
EUROPE PHYSICAL MAP
Horizontal infographics
TEN WAYS TO SAVE WATER
Horizontal infographics
GRETA THUNBERG
Horizontal infographics
FIRE FIGHTER
Horizontal infographics
DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES NOV DEBATE
Horizontal infographics
STEVE JOBS
Horizontal infographics
ONE MINUTE ON THE INTERNET
Horizontal infographics
Transcript
Peter the wild boy
From feral boy, to science experiment, to human pet...Peter the Wild Boy was a clear example of how the environment and context around you change language acquisition.
biograPHY
milestones
critical period
socialization
This painting of Peter show some of the physical features commonly related to Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome (curly hair, hooded eyelids and a pronounced curve to the upper lip).
Peter was found living alone and naked in a forest in Germany in 1725, around age eleven. The boy couldn't talk, walked on four legs and lived a feral life, eating plants and without any kind of concept of modern life. He never learnt how to speak or walk upright. The feral boy was found by hunters led by the King of Britain, George I. He was transported to London where he was a popular talking point for some time. After some time there were attempts by the princess of Wales to educate the boy, but everything they tried failed. After this defeat, Peter was given to Mr. James Fenn, in Northchurch, and then to his brother Thomas Fenn. In 1751 the boy went missing and was found months later in a prison fire and returned to Mr. Fenn. He lived up to 70 years of age, he only learned to say his name and hum a few songs. He died in 1785 and was names English Heritage in 2007. Modern medical professionals consider that Peter might have suffered from a rare genetic disorder called Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome (PTHS), which caused development delay, epilepsy and distinct facial features. The boy's physical appearance and impossibility to learn how to speak might have been partially caused by PTHS in combination to his feral upbringing.
It's impossible to know how long Peter lived alone in that forest, but a combination of isolation and his developmental disorder seemed to cause him to stay stuck in the first milestone of Language Acquisition (usually found in children that are between 0 and 6 months old). Peter could not form words until an old age, for most of his life he could only gurgle; although he did recognise his caretakers' voice and paid attention when talked to. He lacked the necessity and the opportunity to understand speech for most pf his formative years and his feral nature prevented him to move on to other milestones during the rest of his life. In his final years he seemed to move on to understanding what he was told, but even this is impossible to be sure about because he never communicated through speech. The only thing he did was copy words like his name or the rhythm of a song.
According to Leo Vygotsky the primary part of language development is found in social interaction. A child is supposed to climb through different stages with the help of conversations that support the growth of language knowledge. Speech is produced as a consequence of socialisation, something that Peter very clearly lacked while living in the German forest for so long. Again, his environment has a huge impact on the development of his language acquisition, it's impossible for him to start climbing the ladder of linguistic skills if he's not given the first steps to begin the long process.
There is a heavily debated theory among linguists that claims there is a window of time during childhood in which our ability to learn a language is greatly improved. It's the idea that childhood is the ideal time to acquire languages. Peter's case could be an example of a child missing that window, the boy is considered to have lived most of his first ten years of life in the forest. This is probably a contributing factor to how hard it was for him to learn how to speak later in life, he had none of the basis that are more easily acquired during youth. Of course we also have to take into account the possible PTHS diagnosis, but it is safe to assume that the lack of experience during his formative years would have made language acquisition easier.