About Édouard Séguin
Édouard Séguin (January 20, 1812 – October 28, 1880) was a French physician and educator born in Clamecy, Nièvre. He is remembered for his work with children having cognitive impairments in France and the United States. == Background and career in France == He studied at the Collège d’Auxerre and the Lycée Saint-Louis in Paris, and from 1837 studied and worked under Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, who was an educator of deaf-mute individuals, that included the celebrated case of Victor of Aveyron, also known as "The Wild Child". It was Itard who persuaded Séguin to dedicate himself to study the causes, as well as the training of individuals with intellectual disabilities. As a young man, Séguin was also influenced by the ideas of utopian socialist Henri de Saint-Simon. Around 1840, he established the first private school in Paris dedicated to the education of individuals with intellectual disabilities. In 1846, he published Traitement Moral, Hygiène, et Education des Idiots (The Moral Treatment, Hygiene, and Education of Idiots and Other Backward Children). This work is considered to be the earliest systematic textbook dealing with the special needs of children with intellectual disabilities. == Achievements in the United States == Following the European revolutions of 1848, Séguin emigrated to the United States. After visiting various schools, modeled on his own, that had been established in the United States, and assisting in their organization, he settled in Cleveland, and later in Portsmouth, Ohio.
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