Historical Perspectives

in
Special Education
Persons With Disabilities, include those
who have long-term physical, mental,
intellectual or sensory impairments which in
interaction with various barriers may hinder
their full and effective participation in
society on an equal basis with others.
THE ANCIENT ERA
Ancient people struggled to explain their world.
Natural phenomena, such as storms or the change
of seasons, were attributed to gods or some sort of
intervention by higher beings. Thor controlled the
sky, Neptune the sea.
 1552 B.C. marks the first recorded reference to
mental retardation
 The Greeks and Romans in particular held a very
narrow sense of self-image, believing they
exemplified the ideal human type.
 they viewed themselves as superior to all other
races. Physical difference, in the form of a different
ethnicity or a disability, was seen as a mark of
inferiority.
 The Greeks referred to people with intellectual
deficiencies as idiots
 people who had seizures, or "fits" as they were called,
were often said to be "touched by the finger of god"
and considered sacred.
 Hippocrates (460-357 B. C.), the "Father of Medicine,"
challenged this notion by speculating that seizures
were the result of physical causes, not divine
intervention
Throughout history, people with disabilities
have been treated differently from those who
conform to or fit societal norms.
Ancient Views (BC)
 Belief in supernatural led to (2) different
views:
 Demons; therefore kill them
 Unique; therefore revere and honor
 Regardless, those with disabilities were
isolated
 Killed or abandoned in the woods in ancient
Greece
 Kept as jesters for nobility in the Roman Empire
courts
 Experienced acts of infanticide during the
Renaissance
 Drowned or burned during the Spanish
Inquisition
 Punishment: Chaining
 Left on hills to die
 Thrown off cliffs
 Locked away
 Drown
 Father had right to terminate child’s life
 Greek and Roman treatment of the disabled

Thrown off cliffs

Locked away

Chained
 Middle
 Rigid caste system
Ages
 Era of Ridicule
 Those with disabilities were:
 Usedas servants or fools
 Some were still put to death
 Dwarfs were used as clowns
 Overall, ridiculed for deformities and behavior
 Catholic Church accepts those with disabilities as wards of
state
 Kept as jesters for nobility in the Roman Empire courts
 most disabled people lived and worked in their
communities, supported by family and friends.
 If they couldn't work, their town or village might support
them,
 sometimes people resorted to begging
 Some were cared for by monks and nuns as their Christian
duty.
 a network of hospitals based in (or near) religious
establishments began to emerge. Specialist hospitals for
leprosy, blindness and physical disability were created.
England's first mental institution was the Bethlehem
 Era of Asylum
 Cared for in isolation
 No education at first, but humane treatment
 Belief: Once disabled, always disabled
 some people with learning difficulties seen as ‘Natural
Fools’
 Poor Law Acts punished sturdy ‘vagabonds’ who were
seen as idle by choice. They could be whipped and
branded.
 Queen Elizabeth’s government divided the poor into
three groups. The disabled poor were placed in the group
 Henry VIII destroyed the monasteries and with them
the hospitals, only Bethlehem Hospital survived.
 Mental illness began to be seen as a medical issue.
 Seen as unfortunate and deserving of charity Services
and support
Turn of the 19th
Century
 During the Industrial revolution attitudes hardened, less
sympathy. Belief that giving support to people would
make them lazy.
 Not allowed to attend neighborhood schools
 Seclusion policies applied
 Restraint applied
 Abuse prevalent (physical, mental, sexual, financial)
 Shackled to their beds in U.S. institutions because there
was an insufficient number of staff members to care for
residents
 Involuntary sterilization of people with developmental
disabilities
 Considered by eugenicists as defective and an interference
with the process of “natural selection”
 Gassed, drugged, blood let, and euthanized in Nazi
Germany
 Institutionalized regardless of needs, e.g., person with
cerebral palsy was considered mentally retarded
 Victimized with inhumane treatments
 Lives devalued
 Stigmatized as criminals
 Viewed as sickly
 Inaccurately tested
 Inappropriate labels and services rendered
Early Education Efforts
 Itard-wolf boy, multi-sensory learning
 Sequin-training sequence
 Montessori-individualized and discovery
learning
These were some seeds of special education
 Pioneers in Special
Education
Maria Montessori Eduard Seguin Jean-Marc Itard
MARIAMONTESSORI(1870 - 1952)
• Dr. Maria Montessori(1870-1952) was an Italian Doctor.
• She prepared a scheme for the education for the feeble-
minded children.
• She was appointed as a director of special schools.
• She establish a school for children named ‘casa de Bombini’
or children’s house on January 6, 1907.
• She discovered the training of senses and muscles.
• She wrote a book which was very famous named ‘Discovery
of the child’.
• In 1939, she visited India and stayed till 1951.
 Montessori’s Educational Ideas
• Feeble mindedness of child was due to dullness of their senses.
• Proper training would enable them to overcome feeble
mindedness.
• Too much emphasis is laid on the psychology of the child.
• Discipline must come through liberty.
• She introduced ‘ A Didactic Apparatus’ for ‘self education’.
• Education must provide proper training of senses.
• She employed three methods in achieving the aims of education:
a) Motor education training for the head, heart and body.
b) Sensory education with the help of a didactic apparatus.
c) Language teaching consists of desk, small balls, cards with
letters pasted on them colour boards and so on.
 Eduard Seguin (1812-1880)
In 1848 French psychologist Edouard Séguin, who had
studied with Itard, immigrated to the United States and
developed several influential guidelines for educating
children with special needs (ex. Mental retardation).
Seguin’s education programs stressed the importance of
developing independence and self-reliance in disabled
students by presenting them with a combination of
physical and intellectual tasks.
 Edouard Seguin Developed the physiological method
Sensory training
• Focused on touch
• Utilization of material

Motor training
• Age appropriate activities
• Simple to complex
• Functional activities
• Work and play
Seguin’s Basis
1. Frequent changes in activities
2. Analysis of tasks into their components
3. Differentiation of senses from intellect
4. Physical education
5. Sensory stimulation
6. Employment as an outcome of education
 Jean Marc Gaspard Itard (1774-1838)
French physician and educator Jean Marc Gaspard
Itard was one of the earliest teachers to argue that
special teaching methods could be effective in
educating disabled children.
Between 1801 and 1805, Itard used systematic
techniques to teach a boy, named Victor, how to
communicate with others and how to perform daily
living skills, such as dressing himself.
Description of Wild Boy “. . . He is unusual to our food, selecting
his nourishment by smell but at the same time indifferent to
fragrant or foul odors; lying flat on the ground to drink; tearing
garments placed upon him and trying constantly to escape; walking
often on all fours; fighting with his teeth; giving few marks of
intelligence; having no articulate language even devoid of the
faculty of speech. It was later discovered that the boy’s hearing was
insensitive to loud noises and to music; yet he readily heard the fall
of a nut. His sense of touch was likewise deficient. As to sight, his
eyes constantly wandered and could not be fixed on objects”
Bonaterre (1798)
 Five primary goals
1. To interest him in social life – try to make his life better than
before
2. To improve his awareness of environmental stimuli – but the
context was controlled
3. To extend the range of his ideas (e.g. introduce him to games,
culture, etc.)
4. To teach him to speak & teach him to communicate by using
symbol systems, such as pictures and written words
5. To exercise the operations of his mind upon his physical wants,
from simple and proximal to complex and far
Itard’s results Sleeping and eating habits and personal hygiene got
more regular and controlled Senses of touch and taste became more
acute.
• Circle of wants increased
• Learned some monosyllabic words
• Learned to sequence objects
Itard’s failure
• Victor never talked
• He wanted to return to his old life
• Too much exigencies ; lack of emotional attachment
• Maybe Victor maybe had an autistic syndrome or a mental
retardation can also explain the abandonment
First basis of Special Education needs:
• Individualization
• Emotional attachment
• Specific materials
• Structure of contents
• Segregation