Feral Children: A Study of Dani and Genie

Dani was a feral child found living in horrid conditions in the Tampa Bay area in 2008. Genie's story is much older than that and can be found in many textbooks.

While their stories could be discussed in both a psychology class (child development) and a sociology class, the focus is from the sociological perspective.

The resource Feral Children: A Study of Dani and Genie comes with links to three articles from a Florida newspaper that wrote about Dani when she was found in 2008, as well as a "ten-years later" follow up article.

In addition, there is a link to the story of Genie, which is a YouTube video.

Included for the students as handouts are:

·       a scaffolded essay prompt that can be used as discussion questions or for students working in pairs to prepare to write about Genie's story. This is editable, so you'll be able to customize it according to your own class and needs.. A generic rubric has also been included for grading purposes.

·       scaffolded questions separate from the essay, possibly for discussion, that goes along with the video. These questions bring up the topic of ethical concerns, such as "Was it ethical to study Genie?" "Did the case study harm her welfare?" There is also an opportunity to compare the sociological perspective to that of the psychological perspective. This too is editable.

·       a graphic organizer for planning the essay about Genie. This could be adapted to create one for each of these children.

• - finally, there is an opportunity to list the similarities and differences between the two girls and to use that knowledge to form conclusions. A final thought-provoking question asks about the further study of the topic.

links to articles and videos

4 pages of questions, graphic organizers, and essay prompts

a rubric for writing the essay