4. Wild and isolated children and the critical age issue for language learning
1.3.2 Isabelle’s progress
Isabelle’s first attempt at vocalization came just one week after Mason’s first visit with her. The child’s first spoken sounds were approximations of ‘ball’ and ‘car’ in response to being shown a ball and a toy car and being prompted by Mason through gesture to try and say the words.
In less than three months after her entrance to the hospital, Isabelle was producing sentence utterances! We find this entry in Mason’s journal:
Feb. 8, 1939. [Isabelle] says the following sentences voluntarily: That’s my baby; I love my baby; open your eyes; close your eyes; I don’t know; I don’t want; that’s funny; top it – at’s mine (when another child attempted to take one of her toys).
(p. 301)
After just one year, ‘Isabelle listens attentively while a story is read to her. She retells the story in her own limited vocabulary, bringing out the main points’ (p. 302). After a year and a half, the report of a student teacher working with Isabelle noted that the child’s questions now included com- plex structures such as, ‘Why does the paste come out if one upsets the jar?’ and ‘What did Miss Mason say when you told her I cleaned my classroom?’ (p. 303). We find represented in these sentences WH questions (why, when, etc.) with the auxiliary ‘do’, embedded sentences, conditional conjoining, and proper tensing!
Thus, after only 20 months, Isabelle ‘has progressed from her first spoken word to full length sentences . . . [and] . . . intelligent questioning’ (p. 303). Truly, this was a remarkable achievement. And so different from the out- comes with Victor and Genie. Unfortunately, no further reports on Isabelle’s progress are available to our knowledge.