Genie Wiley, The Silent Child
For the first 13 years of her life, Genie Wiley lived shut away in her abusive father's house in California, often tied to a potty chair or confined in a dark room with almost no human interaction and no sense that an outside world existed. When authorities finally rescued her in 1970, she was severely malnourished, could not speak at all, and only made strange, infantile, or animal-like noises while showing little understanding of language.
Doctors and researchers worked with her intensively, and she made major gains in social skills and nonverbal communication, learning to use gestures and simple signs. However, despite years of therapy, Genie never acquired normal language, and her case became a tragic example of how extreme isolation during early childhood can permanently block the development of speech.