Social isolation is one of the harshest punishments known to man. However, for one innocent young girl, known as Genie, social isolation was all she knew. Genie was the nickname given to a wild 13-year-old girl who was the victim of severe abuse and neglect at the hands of her parents, in her own home in Arcadia, California. Before Genie was discovered in 1970 by Los Angeles child welfare authorities, much of her life consisted of being locked alone in her room, tied to a potty or crib, making her immobile (Reynolds and Fletcher-Janzen, 2004). While Genie was locked in her room, she was never exposed to speech and was beaten for every noise she made. Her father, Clark Wiley, only interacted with her by barking and growling; due to this extreme isolation, Genie missed the critical period for acquiring language (Curtiss et al., 1974; Reynolds and Fletcher-Janzen, 2004). Immediately after Genie's discovery, it became a new topic for researchers studying and examining theories of critical periods in humans for learning and understanding language. Unfortunately, shortly after Genie turned 18, his mother forbade scientists from conducting tests and observations, which ultimately diminished any process Genie undertook to learn and understand language. Genie's abuse and social isolation were primarily the result of her father's decision. and the rationale that Genie was severely mentally retarded and thought hiding her from the world was the best option for everyone (Curtiss, 1988). The only visual stimuli Genie could interact with were his potty, crib, rug, and empty walls. Genie's severe neglect and abuse as a child ultimately led her to......middle of article......tiss, Susan (1988), "Abnormal Language Acquisition and Language Modularity ", in Newmeyer, Frederick J., Linguistics: The Cambridge Survey: Volume 2, Linguistic Theory: Extensions and Implications 2, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, pp. 96-116, doi: 10.1016/0013-4694(86)90177-XMaratsos, M. (1979). Is there language after puberty? Psychcritiques, 24(6), 456-457. doi:10.1037/018902 Reynolds, Cecil R and Fletcher-Janzen, Elaine, eds. (2004), Concise Encyclopedia of Special Education: A Reference for the Education of the Handicapped and Other Exceptional Children and Adults (2 ed.), Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 428-429, ISBN 978-0-471-65251-9Venn, JR and Short, JG (1973). Classical vicarious conditioning of emotional responses in kindergarten children. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28(2), 249–255, doi:10.1037/h0035717