10/05/2026
Susan “Genie” Wiley (born 1957) is the pseudonym of an American feral child who was a victim of severe abuse, neglect, and social isolation. Her circumstances are prominently recorded in the annals of linguistics and abnormal child psychology. When she was approximately 20 months old, her father began keeping her in a locked room. Her father had a life of derision, and her mother had suffered neurological damage from the 1930s Dust Bowl. The family had four kids and two of them died of pneumonia and Rh incompatibility.
The extent of her isolation prevented Genie from being exposed to any significant amount of speech, and as a result she did not acquire first language during her childhood. Her abuse came to the attention of Los Angeles County child welfare authorities in November 1970, when she was 13 years and 7 months old, after which she became a ward of the state of California. After Genie's father had committed su***de, Genie's brother dedicated his life in giving his sister all the love and attention until his death in 2011.
Susan Curtiss, an American linguist, centered on the study of the grammatical development of Genie. Over the course of study, Curtiss’s team noted, however, that there were significant differences between Genie’s language development and that of a normal child—surprisingly, considering her limited exposure to language at the time she was placed into custody, Genie’s vocabulary rapidly grew very large. Curtiss's work with Genie has been frequently cited as evidence for the critical period for syntax. Scientists have compared her to Victor of Aveyron, a 19th-century French child who was also the subject of a case study in delayed psychological development and late language acquisition.
Genie’s case has been a source of controversy. During the years in which Genie was studied, Jean Butler (who later began using her married name, Ruch), Genie’s former teacher and foster parent, argued against the research. Additionally, people believe that members of the research team took on too many roles in an attempt to study, befriend, and parent Genie. Despite repeated efforts, Curtiss had been unable to renew contact with her. Today, Genie, now in her senior years, has either forgotten or not improved any social contact. Several people have also emphasized the lack of distinction between Genie's caretakers and her therapists. Physicians including David Rigler, Howard Hansen, James Kent, and Curtiss maintained and also said to have genuinely loved Genie and always provided her the best care possible, pointing out that she had made substantial progress in every aspect of her development while living with them, stating that they treated Genie as a human rather than a test subject.
She was a script consultant for the movie Mockingbird Don't Sing (2001), and was the only person directly involved in the case to be involved in the film's making.
