EDUC 104 Lesson 2

1. Founding
Fathers of
Special
Education

2. Jean Mark
Gaspard Itard
• French physician noted for his work with
the deaf and with the “wild boy of
Aveyron.”
• Itard was one of the first to attempt the
instruction of mentally retarded children
on a scientific basis.
• He explained the methods that he used in
trying to train and educate an unsocialized
11-year-old boy who had been found in a
forest in Aveyron, south of Paris.

3. Introduced key concepts
in SPED
1. Instructional sequence derived from a normal
development
2. Individualized instruction
3. Sensory stimulation
4. Systematic instruction – simple to complex tasks
5. Activities that will build independence and
functional skills

4. Edouard
Seguin
• He pioneered modern educational methods for
teaching the severely intellectually disabled.
• His work can be considered the forerunner
of special education. Seguin's belief that all
people, despite serious handicaps due to
congenital defects, are nonetheless capable of
learning. His work showed that through training,
including exercises to strengthen the physical
body and develop sensori-motor coordination,
even the most severely challenged improved
significantly, with many becoming capable of full
participation in society.

5. Samuel
Gridly Howe
• Founding director of the New-
England Institution for the Education
of the Blind (later known as the
Perkins School for the Blind) and the
Massachusetts School for Idiotic and
Feeble-Minded Youth.

6. Thomas Hopkins
Gallaudet
• founder of the first American
school for the deaf.
• First attempt to communicate with
deaf people.

7. Edward Miner
Gallaudet
• helped establish Gallaudet University, the
first institute of higher education for the
deaf.
• He was also known as a leading proponent
of manualism—the use of sign
language for teaching the deaf.

8. Louis
Braille• A French educator who himself
was blind
• Developed a tactile system of
reading and writing based on a
code or six raised dots

9. Anna
Freud• The techniques of psychoanalysis can
be applied to children with emotional
or behavioral problems

10. Maria
Montessori• Began her career as a physician and spent
her earliest years working with children
with mental retardation
• Observed the natural, spontaneous
behavior of children and arrange learning
experiences to encourage and development
• Created “sensorial” materials
• Emphasis on task analysis, sequencing of
tasks and individualization
• “prepared environment”

11. Alfred
Strauss
• Saw that children show unique patterns of
learning disabilities due to brain injury
• Such children may require special training

12. Samuel
Kirk• Early stimulation
• Optimize young children’s
interaction with the
environment to accelerate
intellectual development

13. Lewis
Terman• Developed the notion of intelligence
quotient (IQ)
• Grandfather of gifted education –
lifelong study of gifted individuals
• An American educator and
psychologist who revised Binet’s
original assessment instrument
• Publication of the Stanford – Binet
Intelligence Scale

14. Alfred
Binet• Intelligence can be measured and can
be improved through education.
• Authored the first developmental
assessment scale capable of quantifying
intelligence
• Originated the concept of the “mental
age” with his colleague Theodore Simon
• The test also aims to determine which
children need SPED