Furthermore, she was still wearing diapers, had compulsive silence and inappropriate sexual behavior. When Genie was discovered by the social workers, she couldn't walk or talk, had abnormal reactions, such as the inability to chew food. Genie, whose birth name was Susan, was kept isolated in a dark bedroom, locked in her bed surrounded by chicken-wire at night, strapped to a potty chair during the day. When a doctor informed Genie's parents, Dorothy and Clark Wiley, their daughter might have been mildly retarded and should be taken care of, Clark Wiley took the advice to the extreme.

Beautiful Genie after getting some treatment. Upon finding that Genie had not yet learned a language, psychologists and linguists devoted a great deal of attention on Genie’s case, seeing an opportunity to study the development of human language and behavior. The indications showed she was being beaten from making the noise. Raised in extreme isolation, Genie was a wild child: uncivilized, barely able to talk or walk, still wearing diapers, albeit being almost 14 years old. A girl who spent her entire childhood locked in the bedroom. In this case and many others, visual communication (images, body movements) are overlooked as a possible form of expression for articulated, reasoned communication.Genie Wiley (pseudonym) was the shocking story of the 1970's. However writing is also a form of visual communication. Written and verbal literacy is the most common, dominant form of language. her description is like a dance, or visual poetry. I started working on this because i found her to be captivating and incredibly gentle, whilst powerfully eloquent - note especially the last shot in which she describes in sign language what happened to her in the foster home. She developed exceptional non-verbal communication skills and a wide range of vocabulary, but ultimately remained unable to achieve a full command of language -specially grammatical systems. Psychologists, linguists and other scientist saw Genie as providing an opportunity to gain further insight to the processes controlling language acquisition skills and to test hypothesis identifying critical periods during humans learn to understand and use language. The extent of her isolation prevented her from being exposed to any significant amount of speech, and she did not acquire language during her childhood as a result. Genie Susan Wiley (b.1957) is a feral child who was a victim of social isolation and severe child abuse.

Raw edit focused only on her mesmerising abilities for non-verbal communication. This silent video compiles all Genie Susan Wiley footage available on the internet without voiceovers/interviews.

Genie wiley today