feral child
Wild-raised youngster
A feral child is a human child who has lived in isolation from human contact, often raised by animals or surviving alone in the wild.
Such children typically lack language, social skills, and behaviors considered normal for their age.
The term also applies to children raised in severe neglect: The documentary followed a feral child discovered living with dogs.
Cases like these inform debates about nature versus nurture and critical periods for language acquisition.
- wild animalUndomesticated creature
- untamedNot domesticated
- wildNot domesticated or controlled
- atavismReturn to ancestral type
- unsocializedNot adapted to society
rehabilitation · neglect · animal mimicry · liminality · human zoo · bite · orphan · stray · abandonment · social isolation · Mowgli · Tarzan · jungle book · Romulus and Remus · crawling · savage · howling · speechless
- wild mensasquatch, yeti, wildling, savage, primitive man
feral childchild prodigy
Exceptionally gifted youngster
gifted child · prodigy · Mozart · debutante · trust fund kid
child, children, childish, childhood, childbirth, childlike, feral, childless, childcare