Édouard Séguin

Édouard Séguin (1812 to 1880) was a French physician and educator born in Clamecy, remembered for his work with children who had cognitive impairments in France and the United States. After studying in Paris he worked from 1837 under Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, who persuaded him to devote himself to the causes and training of people with intellectual disabilities. Around 1840 he opened what is described as the first private school in Paris dedicated to educating them, and in 1846 he published a work considered the earliest systematic textbook on the special needs of children with intellectual disabilities. After the European revolutions of 1848 he emigrated to the United States, helped organize schools modeled on his own, took an M.D. in New York in 1861 and worked to improve conditions for children with disabilities on Randall's Island. He became the first president of the association now called the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. His methods influenced Maria Montessori, and in the 1870s he also published on medical thermometry.