[162] Several of the scientists, including Curtiss and Howard Hansen, recalled Butler openly stating that she hoped Genie would make her famous, and Curtiss especially remembered Butler repeatedly proclaiming her intent to be "the next Anne Sullivan". [5][298] The scientists' footage Nova used from the case study archives had significantly deteriorated, and required restoration for use in the documentary. [16][12][17] During her early childhood, Genie's mother sustained a severe head injury in an accident, giving her lingering neurological damage that caused degenerative vision problems in one eye. She became somewhat more sociable in her interactions with people and became somewhat more responsive, although she still frequently showed no obvious signs that she heard someone. On one such test, she had no difficulty giving the correct meaning of sentences containing familiar homophones, demonstrating that her receptive comprehension was significantly better than her expressive language. At that time she told him that Genie had recently moved into a more supportive foster home which permitted regular visits, and said that Genie was happy and, although hard to understand, was significantly more verbal. [5][59][60] Although Genie's father refused to speak to police or the media, large crowds subsequently went to try to see him, which he reportedly found extremely difficult to handle.
[57][47][84], From the start Genie showed a small amount of responsiveness to nonverbal information, including gestures and facial expressions from other people, and made reasonably good eye contact. One note—sources conflict as to which—contained the declaration, "The world will never understand. [142][185][201] Nonetheless, even by mid-1975 most social interactions with her remained abnormal in quality. [299], Abused and neglected feral child studied by linguists, The first publicly released picture of Genie, taken in 1970, just after authorities took control of her care at the age of 13, Interest as a case study and grant funding. Genie's parents lived in Arcadia, California. On rare occasions he allowed Genie to play with plastic food containers, old spools of thread, TV Guides with many of the illustrations cut out, and the raincoats. [92][208], In many cases, the scientists used Genie's language development to help them gauge her overall psychological state. David Rigler said that he and Marilyn initially intended the arrangement to last for a maximum of three months, but Genie ultimately stayed with them for almost four years.
[1] Genie spent the next 12 years of her life locked in her bedroom. [4][12][17] Genie's father was convinced Genie would die by age 12 and promised that, if she survived past that age, he would allow his wife to seek outside assistance for her, but he reneged when Genie turned 12 and her mother took no action for another year and a half. [113] Kent wrote that she did the same series of actions several times over and that it appeared to ease some internal tension for her, and therefore thought she did this to gain control of traumatic childhood experiences. Near the end of that month, after one of these trips, Butler told the hospital that she (Butler) might have contracted rubella, to which Genie would have been exposed. He almost never allowed his wife or son to talk and viciously beat them if they did so without permission, particularly forbidding them to speak to or around Genie.
[42][44][45], Genie's father fed Genie as little as possible and refused to give her solid food, feeding her only baby food, cereal, Pablum, an occasional soft-boiled egg, and liquids. [246][10][206], In several of their publications, the scientists acknowledged the influence that Jean Marc Gaspard Itard's study of Victor of Aveyron had on their research and testing. [12][22][50] Around three weeks later, on November 4, Genie's mother decided to apply for disability benefits for the blind in nearby Temple City, California, and brought Genie with her, but on account of her near-blindness Genie's mother accidentally entered the general social services office next door. [c][5][137][138] The research team also planned to continue periodic evaluations of Genie's psychological development in various aspects of her life. [41], Genie's father had an extremely low tolerance for noise, to the point of refusing to have a working television or radio in the house. [178] Genie's mother steadily began listening more to Ruch, and eventually came to feel the research team was marginalizing her. Her circumstances are prominently recorded in the annals of linguistics and abnormal child psychology. [149][92], In June 1971, Jean Butler obtained permission to take Genie on day trips to her home in Country Club Park, Los Angeles.