Édouard Séguin

Édouard Séguin (January 20, 1812 – October 28, 1880) was a physician and educationist born in Clamecy, Nièvre, France. He is remembered for his work with children having cognitive impairments in France and the United States.

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, and in 1846 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.

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. Later he relocated to New York State and set up a medical practice in Mount Vernon (1860). In 1861 he received an M.D. from the University of the City of New York. In 1863 he moved to New York City, where he made efforts to improve conditions of children with disabilities at Randall's Island asylum.

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