Oxana Malaya

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Isabel Quaresma

Dominique

Dominique was confined until the age of 5 in a basement next to a heating boiler. Apart from occasional visits by her mother, grandmother and a cat, she had no contact with the outside world.

She was discovered in 1982 and then hospitalised, and subsequently placed in the care of a foster family. Aimée Leduc and her team at Laval University undertook a programme of education for Dominique. She made quick progress in language, comprehension of numbers and her general behaviour.

Unfortunately, the family were eventually unable to keep her and she was institutionalised and medicated.

Dominique is the subject of Leduc's L'histoire d'apprentissage d'une enfant "sauvage".