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Jean Marc Gaspard Itard and 'The Wild Boy of Aveyron'
Jean Marc Gaspard Itard was the Chief Physician at The National Institution for Deaf-Mutes in Paris, France. He is known for his work with a boy, Victor, who was found in the woods near Aveyron, France and thought to of been living in the wild for 11-12 years. Victor has been deemed an 'incurable idiot', but Itard thought differently. Itard was not successful in teaching him how to speak, but Victor gained social, academic, and independent living skills with Itard's interventions. -
The Perkins Institute for the Blind
Dr. John Dix Fisher and Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe founded the first school for the blind in the United States, Perkins Institute for the Blind. Perkins School for the Blind -
Boston Line Type
Samuel Gridley how developed a tactile writing system called the 'Boston Line Type' to support blind students. Boston line type is a roman alphabet with no capital letters. It was a pre-cursor to braille. -
Edouard Seguin and the Physiological Method
As a student of Itard, Edouard Seguin established the first school to educate students with intellectual disabilities. Seguin believed that these students had an arrested mental development occurring in the nervous system, and that by implementing sensory stimulation the nervous system would strengthen. Doing this treatment would improve motor and cognitive development. This treatment was known as the 'Physiological Method'. -
Samuel Gridley Howe & the School for the 'Feebleminded'
Samuel Gridley Howe started a school for intellectual disabilities in Boston, MA. Howe believed that students could be valuable members of society, and should be given a chance to do so. His curriculum supported self-sufficiency, physical activity and job skills. -
Ward v. Flood
The California Supreme Court made a decision that a principal of a public school could refuse to admit a child who had not had sufficient education to perform at the lowest grade level of the school. Students who could not perform at typical levels were put into 'ungraded' classes to support students who could not succeed in general education classes. -
Elizabeth Farrell and 'Ungraded' Classes
Elizabeth Farrell established the first ungraded classes in New York City Public Schools. By 1903, she had 10 specialized classes that grew in size each year. This began the use of self-contained classroom in regular schools. -
Alfred Benet
Alfred Benet developed an intelligence test (Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale)that differentiated between students who were successful in school, and those who were not. Those students who were not were then able to receive supports. The Benet-Simon scale did not rank students by score, but by those who needed academic assistance. Binet believed that a test alone could not determine intelligence, but also by observation in his/her environment. -
Henry Herbert Goddard and the Binet-Simon Scale
Henry Herbert Goddard visited Europe and brought the Binet-Simon scale to the U.S. He translated it and with revisions, the Binet-Simon Scale was widely adopted to diagnosis intellectual disability. It started using age-related norms, and then later calculated mental age. -
International Council for the Education of Exceptional Children
Elizabeth Farrell, along with her students at Columbia University's Teachers College formed the International Council for the Education of Exceptional Children, what we call the Council for Exceptional Children today.
Council for Exceptional Children -
P.L. 85-926
The first federal legislation that provided support for university training programs for special education teachers of students with mental retardation. -
Rehabilitation Act of 1973
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 provided equal access for people with disabilities by removing architectural, employment, and transportation barriers. -
Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94-142)
President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act on November 29, 1975. It stated that public schools across the U.S. provided free education to special education for students between the ages of 3-21, and any supplemental services or resources needed to provide them this education. -
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a law that protects workers with disabilities by giving them equal access to all benefits and privileges of employment that are available to employees without disabilities. ADA -
No Child Left Behind Act
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was the main law for K–12 general education in the United States from 2002–2015.
The law held schools accountable for how kids learned and achieved, and penalized schools that did not show improvement. It's goal was to provide more educational opportunities for all students. -
IDEA (2004)
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act enabled a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) to all eligible students with disabilities, including special education and related services. IDEA -
Every Student Succeeds Act
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed by President Barack Obama in 2015. It replaced it's predecessor, No Child Left Behind. It allowed states to develop Alternate Achievement Standards for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, and that all students in America be taught to high academic standards that will prepare them to succeed in college and careers. ESSA