A Case Analysis About Oxana Malaya: A Feral Child Who Acted Inhumanely

Jaravata, Venus Jhenica A.
2 nd Year - AB Psychology
Silva, Vince Joshua
A Case Analysis about Oxana Malaya: a Feral Child who acted inhumanely
CASE:
This is a remarkable story about a young girl who spent six years in a farmyard
kennel with dogs after her parents rejected and abandoned her. Oxana Malaya lived
with dogs for a long time, and they became her family. Her parents failed to protect and
care for her, therefore she was protected and cared for by the animals. She begins to
act like the dogs in exchange for their care. Even doctors were taken aback by her
situation because it was so unusual.
Oxana Malaya is strange and dissimilar to the rest of us. She behaves like a dog,
jumping, running, and eating. She isn't even walking or running with her feet. She's
crawling on her hands and knees, as if she were a dog. She's growling, barking, and
eating with her mouth on the ground while sipping water with her tongue. Her story isn’t
a fraud. It's the outcome of a harsh childhood that began when she was three years old.
Her mother, she explained, has a large family and does not have enough beds. Her
parents were alcoholics, so she was left outside on a cold night one night. To get rid of
her cold, she crawled inside the dog's house and started living with it. She found warmth
in mongrel dogs as a three-year-old youngster who had not yet physically and
cognitively developed. Since she began living with the dogs, they have communicated
with each other via barking. Oxana adapted the dogs' features as a result.
Her case is truly horrific because she did not deserve to be treated this way. It is
quite distressing when a person acts like an animal as a result of having abusive
parents. I can't image how difficult it must be for a three-year-old girl to adjust to the
dogs' environment simply to survive. She had no idea how to interact with others and
just knew the words "yes" and "no." People who have seen her have described her as
looking more like a small dog than a human child.
INSIGHTS:
Parenting, the act of support and development of children, has been well-studied in
developed countries (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978; A. R. Anderson & Henry,
1994; S. A. Anderson, Sabatelli, & Kosutic, 2013; Belsky, 1984; Darling & Steinberg,
1993). However, very little is known about parenting in Ukraine. In a recent study, the
risk for externalizing behaviors was higher for Ukrainian children if their parents did not
use positive parenting, were not providing adequate monitoring and relied on corporal
punishment (Burlaka, 2016). There are more than 100,000 children living in orphanages
in Ukraine. In most cases orphans are abandoned by their own family due to lack of
finances to support them, however, other reasons include alcoholism, abuse, crime
illness, and poor medical health.
When Oxana was three years old, her parents abandoned her. Her parents are known
to be alcoholics, which is why they failed to notice Oxana outside on that frigid night.
She was deprived of the opportunity to speak, study, and communicate with others.
When it comes to Oxana Malaya's socioemotional processes, she is lacking in
interpersonal relationships. She didn't have much interaction with people because her
companion for the past six years has been a pack of mongrel dogs. She is also
experiencing emotional shifts, as well as personality changes. Because she was cared
for by a dog, she grew up to act like one. She lacks from any social skills, and her
behavior is considered strange.
Oxana’s case proved that our behavior depends on the environment we are living in.
Her dog-like nature was not passed down from her parents. She acted inhumanely
since no one seemed to care for her. We all are a product of our experiences and
environment. There is a psychologist named Winthrop Niles Kellogg who is known for
his study: The Ape and the Child, which involved his observations of raising a
chimpanzee infant along with his own son. Based on their observations, they found out
that, Gua the chimpanzee, was able to take on many human ways. She wore shoes and
walked upright. She was able to eat with a spoon, drink out of a glass and open doors
before the boy, Donald, acquired those abilities which means that the chimpanzee
learned to act like human because her environment was living with humans. She
adapted her behavior and personality on the nurture, and that goes with us humans as
well. Even Kellogg’s son, Donald, learned how to bark and yelp like the chimpanzee,
mimicking it. Kellogg concluded that infants easily adapt to their environment.
Reflecting closely on Oxana's case, she was a three-year-old toddler who readily
adapted to her surroundings. Her development was severely slowed. Her linguistic
abilities were also lacking, since she spent years only barking and snarling. Her
cognitive area of human development is also deficient since, although being 22, she still
thinks like a six-year-old child. The environment and intrinsic qualities of a kid are what
create them the person they are, according to research, studies, and ideas. When
raising a kid, there are anticipated patterns of behavior and growth, and understanding
these things will ensure that every human being will travel along a progressive road that
every parent in the world is obligated to execute and steer.
REFERENCES:
Oxana Malaya’s Case - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv3ocntSSUU&t=137s
Oxana Malaya’s Case 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkted4P6ewY&t=2s
Parenting - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5659940/
Number of Abandoned Children in Ukraine -

https://www.childaidee.org.uk/blog/orphans-in-ukraine#:~:text=There%20are%20more
%20than%20100%2C000,illness%2C%20and%20poor%20medical%20health.
Winthrop Kellogg’s Study - https://www.edubloxtutor.com/kellogg/

A Case Analysis About Oxana Malaya: A Feral Child Who Acted Inhumanely

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Case Analysis About Oxana Malaya: A Feral Child Who Acted Inhumanely

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Case Analysis About Oxana Malaya: A Feral Child Who Acted Inhumanely

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Jaravata, Venus Jhenica A.

Silva, Vince Joshua

Oxana Malaya’s Case - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv3ocntSSUU&t=137s

Oxana Malaya’s Case 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkted4P6ewY&t=2s

Number of Abandoned Children in Ukraine -

Winthrop Kellogg’s Study - https://www.edubloxtutor.com/kellogg/

You might also like