Editing Victor of Aveyron (section)

==Recent commentary==
Professor [[Uta Frith]] has stated she believes Victor displayed signs of [[autism]].<ref name="Radio 4">{{cite web|publisher=[[BBC Radio 4]]|series=Case Study|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00b7lrb |title=The Wild Boy of Aveyron |first=Claudia|last= Hammond |date= 2008-11-30}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Jill|last= Dawson |title=Interview in The Big Issue on Wild Boy |url=http://www.jilldawson.co.uk/bigissue.html |access-date=2008-11-30 |author-link=Jill Dawson |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202183846/http://www.jilldawson.co.uk/bigissue.html |archive-date=2009-02-02 }}</ref><!-- Some scholars{{Attribution needed|date=November 2008}} now believe, partly by studying such [[feral child]]ren, that [[language acquisition]] must take place in a [[critical period]] of early childhood if it is to be successful.--> [[Serge Aroles]], in his book ''L'énigme des enfants-loups'' (''The Mystery of the Wolf-Children''), also believes that surviving accounts of his behavior point to "a moderate degree of [[autism]]" (''autisme moderé'') in Victor's case.<ref name="Aroles2007">{{cite book|last=Aroles|first=Serge |author-link=Serge Aroles|title=L'enigme des enfants-loups: une certitude biologique mais un déni des archives, 1304-1954|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ypa7DAAAQBAJ|year=2007|publisher=Editions Publibook|language=fr|isbn=978-2-7483-3909-3|trans-title=The Mystery of the Wolf-Children}}</ref>{{rp|212}} Aroles notes that Victor showed characteristic signs of mental derangement, like grinding of the teeth, incessant rocking back and forth, and sudden, spasmodic movements.<ref name="Aroles2007" />{{rp|211}}

In March 2008, following the disclosure that [[Misha Defonseca]]'s best-selling book, later turned into film ''[[Survivre avec les loups]]'' ('Survival with the Wolves'), was a hoax, there was a debate in the French media (newspapers, radio, and television)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/2008/02/28/03004-20080228ARTFIG00667-survivre-avec-les-loups-la-supercherie-.php |title=Survivre avec les loups : la supercherie |date=28 February 2008 |publisher=Lefigaro.fr |access-date=2014-03-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Shields |first=Rachel |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/adopted-by-wolves-bestselling-memoir-was-a-pack-of-lies-790000.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220817/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/adopted-by-wolves-bestselling-memoir-was-a-pack-of-lies-790000.html |archive-date=2022-08-17 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Adopted by wolves? The bestselling memoir was a pack of lies |work=The Independent |date=2008-03-01 |access-date=2014-03-06}}</ref> concerning the numerous uncritically believed false cases of feral children. Although there are numerous books on this subject, almost none of them have been based on archives, with the authors using rather dubious second- or third-hand, printed information. According to French surgeon Serge Aroles, author of a general study of the phenomenon of feral children based on archives,<ref name="Aroles2007" /> almost all of these cases are fakes. In his judgment,<ref name="Aroles2007" />{{rp|chapter XXXI}} Victor of Aveyron was not a genuine feral child; in Aroles' view, the scars on his body were not the consequences of a wild life in the forests, but rather of physical abuse at the hands of his parents or whoever initially raised him. Humans need to be nurtured at least until the age of 5 or 6; it is inconceivable that any child, including Victor, could survive on his own, in the wild, younger than that. This disability could also explain why he was abused, perhaps treated like an animal, in his earliest years. [[Bruno Bettelheim|Bettelheim]], 1959 makes a case for this being a general pattern in the lives of so-called feral children.<ref name="Bettelheim1959">{{cite journal|last1=Bettelheim|first1=Bruno|title=Feral Children and Autistic Children|journal=American Journal of Sociology|volume=64|issue=5|year=1959|pages=455–467|issn=0002-9602|doi=10.1086/222541|s2cid=144015209}}</ref>