Writing a feral child

This idea is connected to the one discussed here and in the Finnish Elves thread in that it also uses St. Nicholas folklore as inspiration/a basis for its story, but it's set in Myra in the early 300s when St. Nick was Bishop of Myra according to legend.

The day before yesterday I remembered an idea I had for a story inspired by the character of Knecht Ruprecht, the companion of St. Nicholas in most of Germany, who was sometimes played as a Black African(according to a few Internet sites and a German friend/former exchange student at my high school who lives on the Dutch border and was told that Santa and Ruprecht come from Africa). I've already written down a rough draft since I tend to start drafting as soon as I get my ideas.

The version of the legend I'm using is one that KR was originally a feral child who had been abandoned in the woods. St. Nick found him and adopted him, and when he grew older he became Nicholas' helper. I don't know much about the plot yet, but it's written in first-person from Ruprecht's perspective and covers his life from a few years after St. Nicholas adopts him to when he becomes his helper.

The problem about this is I have no idea how to plausibly write a feral child beyond some points (limited vocabulary, animal-like behaviours like walking on all fours and biting people frequently) Anyone written a feral child character before and have any advice on how to make it plausible?

edited 1st Jul '14 11:24:38 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

I think you would do better to look up actual feral children such as Genie or Danielle Crockett.

On Danielle Crockett and Genie: poor things.

edited 2nd Jul '14 2:16:08 AM by MorwenEdhelwen

Also, this may be incredibly specific, but how would his normal three-year-old language development be affected by spending so much time in the wild before being taken into society? And how could I show this in internal monologue?

edited 3rd Jul '14 6:33:26 AM by MorwenEdhelwen