On February 6, 1938 the New York Times reported that a six year old girl had been found tied to an old chair in a storage room on the second floor of her farm home in Pennsylvania. She had been there since she was a baby. The child, Anna, was wedged into a chair that was tilted back to rest upon a coal bucket, arms tied over her head. Anna could not talk or move and was dressed in dirty clothes. Her arms and legs were so fragile and thin, due to lack of nourishment that she could not even use them. She never grew normally and the chair that she was tied to was so small that she was forced to double her legs partly under her.
Soon after her discovery, she was moved to a children's home, where she was noted to be completely immobile and expressionless. She was believed to be deaf and possibly blind. Months following, Anna showed some improvement in a wide variety of motor and cognitive skills. After a further nine months, she was put into a private home for children with mental retardation. She began to develop speech within the next two years; however, she unfortunately died shortly after from jaundice.
Written by: D. H. Skuse
TASK: Reply to this blog by telling me what your feelings were after reading this and if you have ever heard of instances, such as this, involving exreme deprivation in children.
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18 comments:
I can not believe how inhumane people can be. It is hard to focus on the language development on a child when a clear disregard for human life is factored in. I am in utter disbelief that a person could tie a child up for years like an animal. I am hurt. I hope the parents or guardians responsible for this cruel and unsual punishment receive the death penalty.
People who do things like this are just plain sick. Hearing about cases like this is extremely disturbing and it is pathetic that people such as this are allowed to have children. However, I think that it was interesting to see that after only a few months, she did develop some motor skills and showed improvement. This is just a sign that giving children love, compassion, and a healthy environment is crucial to a promising learning experience.
This story was very sad to me. I get so angry that there are actually people in the world who could do this, not only to another person, but a child. Sadly,I have heard of other reports of child abuse...not to me personally, but on the news. I have heard of children who were beat so hard that they suffered brain injuries that affected their verbal and motor skills. That child's life was forever changed because of someone's serious anger issues. One thing that did give me hope in the article was that the child did develop some moter skills. Even though the child passed away, it should encourage all of us to try and help those children of abuse in their recovery. Love and compassion can go a long way for a hurt child.
This article really bothered me. Although I am very interested in language development in people...(I think everyone has a deep desire to be understood) but I would say her language development would be second to her physical problems.
Yeah this article is disturbing, but unfortunately cases like this happen. I will never understand how people can mistreat others so badly. Children from abusive situations can normaly live fairly normal lives, but they have to receive treatment, love, and attention in time.
This story is very disturbing. I don't like to think that things like that happen. About the deprivation, it is amazing how resiliant people can be as evidenced by her partial recovery in such a short time. Had she not died, she probably would have continued to make up for the developement that she missed in early childhood. It is not surprising to me that she had difficulty with speech. Speech is something that we learn from each other. She did not speak because I doubt that her parents took the time to teach her. A very sad case.
Bryan Norbut
Sadly this happens a lot. In California in the 80s there was a case like this with a little girl who was locked in a room until she was 12. When they found her she had no social skills and could not speak. They were able to teach her to read and understand language to that of an 6 year old. Another case was in France were a boy had lived in the woods and was found. they brought him up and tried to teach him French, but the child could not fully understand or speak the language. The reason these children have these problems is because of the influential learning period from birth- 8 years old. During this period children are like sponges and can learn language extremely fast, but when deprived of any language they miss the window of opportunity and will never be able to fully learn language. This cannot be reversed , only prevented by finding and convicting the people that do this to children.
This story is very disturbing. I could not imagine if I was that little girl. However, I have heard something similar to this story, but I don't remember exactly what happened. Of what I can remember a young girl was locked in a room for ten or so years. I thinks she was found at the age of 11 or 12. She obviously did not have hardly any skills and was moved into a treatment center where she had to learn everything.
This story reminds me of the horrible people that unfortunately exist in our world. It is hard for me to believe that anyone could be so heartless; however, stories like this motivate me to be a better teacher. I will have children in less severe cases than this, but many of my students will be enduring struggles at home while in my class. I hope to somehow, even in the smallest way, improve their situation. I also found it remarkable that the little girl gained a certain comprehension and skill after such a short time.
OH MY GOSH! That is how I felt. It makes me angry that people can treat a child in such a way. Children are dependent on those who take care of them, and to mistreat them in such a way is inhumane. I hope the parents of that poor girl where placed in jail for a long time or worse. As for this child, it is so sad that she had to go through such a thing. I have heard of other stories like this and I feel the same way towards them. In cases such as this you wonder what type of person could do such a thing. In all cases of abuse (physical and sexual) and neglect I think there should be strict enforcement of the law on the perpetrators.
I hope that the parents of this child were several punished for treating her in such a way. I can't believe that any one could possible do this to their child. I have seen stuff like this on the news or in movies, but never in real life. It makes me sick to my stomach to think that a person can do this to someone else, especially a child. People can be so inhumane sometimes and it is amazing to see how they treat one another. I was glad to read that she was rescued, but her life had already been taken away from her. She started to bounce back a little, but she had been in that situation for so long that she would never have been the same. I can't believe that anyone could do that to someone else. It was a very sad story that made me angry. Children are abused everyday. My uncle was abused by his real mom so much he became mentally handicapped. It is astonishing that these things happen, but they do happen everyday.
This is the most outrageous case of human, yet only of children, deprivation. My first reaction was "Are they fucking insane". Excuse my language but upon reading this passage I was and still am extremely livid about the whole situation. Who could ever torture a child? Which is what it is in actuality. I am just sickened by this entire matter and hope to God I do not hear anything even closely related to this sort of cruelty.
I have heard of this situation before, and it disgusts me. Obviously we never can know what it is that makes certain people so cruel or heartless. In a psychology class that I took in high school, I read about a case study involving a girl named Genie, who also was tied to a chair until she was about 13 years old. She was taken in by, if I remember correctly, a group of psychologists who tried to help her attain language. She made some gains, but in the end she was unable to bring her intelligence level up to more than a child's level. The interesting thing about this study is that it seems to suggest that there is a window for learning, and if this is missed, it may be impossible to acquire certain forms of intelligence.
This is terrible. I can't believe how cruel adults, people who are supposed to know better, can be. There are so many ways to deal with a child if you don't want it. Adoption, giving the child to other family members...there's no excuse to tie a child up, and it's a wonder that the child lived to be this long.
This article was just gross. I don't know if I have the ability to worry about this child's language abilities. I am more worried about her phsyical and mental condition. I do find it interesting that she did develop some motor skills, which shows that even through her trauma, she was still able to learn. I wonder if she ever learned to communicate, even in small ways, or was even capable of learning that she was put in a horrible situation.
I never did understand child abuse. How can you do such cruel things to such sweet children? I'm not sure I have ever heard of anything else like this with just children. However, I am reading Harriet Jacob's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl", and a lot of her descriptions of torture come to mind when thinking of this blog post.
---bonnie bilyeu
I'm sickened by what people are capable of. I hope her parents were forced to spend the rest of their lives tied to a chair in a small dark room.
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