Édouard Séguin

Born in France in 1812 and died in New York in 1880. Medical pioneer in working with people with disabilities. He studied with Jean Itard, a French psychiatrist who tried to educate Victor of Aveyron, commonly known as "the Wild Boy." Jean Itard encouraged Séguin to venture into the etiology and working with people with disabilities. Thus, in 1839 he created the first school in France dedicated to groups with special educational needs (SEN). In 1846 he published the first treatise on SEN of Children: "The moral treatment, hygiene, and education of idiots and other backward children". He continued creating schools for the group with functional diversity, being a pioneer in the field and in 1866 published "Idiocy: and its treatment by the physiological method" in which he expressed his way to advance towards physical and intellectual independence of people with disabilities. It was a great influence to the psychiatrist and educator Maria Montessori and her "Scientific Pedagogy".