For members of SpEd 456/556. Here are some interesting facts from your text by Beirne-Smith, Ittenbach, & Patton. Explore these points by reading more about the history of services provided in Chapter One of the text.

1. Prior to 1700

a. Emphasis on caregiving
b. Treated individuals as buffoons and court jesters
c. Perceived individuals as having demons
d. People with mild disabilities blended into society
e. Philosophy of humanism-protective in nature
f. Responsibility for care with the family unit

2. 1700-1890

a. idea that all were created equal and had inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was popular-lead to a climate of assting individuals
b. special education and systematic services ere born

3. Jean-Marc Itard

a. Wild boy of Averyon
b. Precedent set of developing and implementing a systematic program of intervention and achievement

4. Edouard Seguin

a. Established a program for educating the “feeble-minded”
b. Methods and education were more systematic than Itards
c. Published a book “Idiocy and Its Treatment by Physologica Methods

5. Guggenbuhl

a. Established the first residential facility which became a model for other institutions
b. Called the facility Abendberg (initially had glowing reports and then severely criticized)
c. Entry into normal living was the goal

6. Dorthea Dix

a. Campaigned for the better treatment of the less fortunate who were housed in asylums, almshouses, poorhouses, and country homes

7. Samuel Howe

a. Efforts to establish public support for training of persons with mental retardation
b. Convinced state legislature to appropriate money

8. Hervey Wilbur

a. Founded the first private setting for treating individual with mental retardation at his home in Barre, MA

9. 1890-1960

a. Emphasis on protecting society from persons with mental retardation
b. New custodial role
c. Sterilization (cutting off the supply of defectives)

10. Eugenics Scare/Goddard/Kallikak Family

a. Inheritance of mental defectiveness
b. Galton published Hereditary Genius
c. Indiana passed the first sterilization law in 1907

11. Alfred Binet

a. Introduction of the mental test
b. Created a mechanism for identifying milder forms of retardation (those that are more noticeable in academic settings)

c. Separate special classes developed and grew in number

12. Vocational Rehabilitation

a. Provided services to wounded veterans returning from World War I
b. Created to provide training opportunities and protect the right of individuals with disabilities

13. CEC

a. Established special education as a bona fide professional field
b. Prior to this the field had no unifying organization structure on a national level

14. Franklin D. Roosevelt

a. New Deal philosophy responsible for social change through legislation and the formulation of new programs (e.g., Social Security Act of 1935)
b. New attitude supportive of a public welfar system
c. Affirmation of responsibility to those in need

15. Brown vs. Board of Education

a. Focus on desegration
b. Affected thinking and policymaking for individuals with mental retardation

16. John F. Kennedy

a. Sister had mental retardation and brought national attention to the needs of this group
b. Established the president’s Panel on Mental Retardation

17. Developmental Disabilities Act of 1978

a. Provided functional way of conceptualizing developmental disabilities
b. Funding to assist persons who demonstrate problems in major life function areas

18. Normalization

a. Philosophy origizating in the Scandinavia contouries
b. Bank-Mikkelsen and Bengt Nirje
c. “Making available to the mentally retarded patterns and conditions of everyday life which are as close as ossible to the norms and patterns of the mainstream of society.”