This paper surveys the individuals whose work laid the foundations of modern special education. Beginning with 18th-century French educators who established the first schools for the deaf and blind, the paper traces contributions through Edouard Seguin's work with the mentally handicapped, Maria Montessori's innovations, and into 20th-century American developments led by Samuel Orton, Marion Monroe, and Samuel Kirk. It examines how Kirk's definition of learning disabilities and his eight-feature framework catalyzed a political movement that ultimately produced federal legislation supporting special education programs in the United States.
Special education addresses the unique needs of children with disabilities. Children who often benefit from additional attention include those with learning and communication challenges, social or behavioral disorders, physical disabilities, and developmental disorders (Special Education, 2011). Special education adapts traditional teaching approaches and individualizes them to the particular needs of each child in order to optimize educational outcomes. Accounts of educating the deaf and blind can be traced back to the Renaissance, when scientists first began developing methods of educating disabled people. A number of individuals in particular have made significant contributions to the field of special education — both in laying its foundations and later in institutionalizing the teaching approach.
According to historical accounts, the first physical impairment to receive special educational attention was deafness. Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée is an 18th-century French educator widely considered the father of the deaf (Martin et al., 1981). Épée believed that deaf people were capable of communicating through language and dedicated himself to developing a method to instruct them. In 1760, Épée founded the world's first free school for the deaf. An especially remarkable aspect of the school was that it was open to the public, as Épée encouraged other educators to learn from his system. He developed a sign language known as "Methodical Signs," which built on an older system by incorporating signs for all verb endings, articles, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs of the French language (Mirzoeff, 1992).
His work had an immense impact on the legal status of the deaf in society. In 1791, the deaf were first recognized under the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. The school for the deaf that he founded — the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets à Paris — began to receive government funding in 1791. His educational approach and system of sign language were exported and implemented in other European countries. Laurent Clerc, a student of the school, later founded the first school for the deaf in America and introduced the sign language that forms the basis of modern American Sign Language (Martin et al., 1981).
Developments in the special education of the blind followed soon thereafter. In 1784, Valentin Haüy founded the Royal Institution for the Young Blind in Paris, the first school for the blind (Sakula, 1998). Haüy developed the first system of raised letters, which he began using with students to help them compose sentences. Louis Braille entered the school in 1819 and perfected Haüy's system of raised letters into the Braille system of reading and writing for the blind. It was Haüy's efforts that first introduced the system and gave blind students the educational opportunity to prosper.
"Seguin and Montessori's institutional innovations"
"Orton, Monroe, and Kirk's diagnostic methods"
"Kirk's framework and landmark 1970 legislation"
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