Pedro Ponce De L Epee

Introduction

“Blindness separates us from things; deafness separates us from people” – Hellen Keller. The quote by the renowned blind and deaf American author speaks volume of the plight, a deaf person suffers in his or her life due to hearing loss. A deaf child faces a tremendous challenge in learning a language as Falvo (2005) has asserted that “ Children who have severe hearing loss or are deaf are not exposed to many elements of communication” (p. 164). There is a substantial number of people with hearing loss across the world and aging as well as exposure to noise is often stated as the main reasons for the same. Today, there are schools, colleges and even universities for imparting education for such people, but many few know that earlier

There has been even a reference of sign language for deaf Athenians in the writings of the famous Greek philosopher Plato. The history of deaf education owes a lot to Pedro Ponce de Leon in the 16th and De L’Epee in the 18th century for their respective contributions teaching deaf children and adults using signs to impart learning successfully. Pedro Ponce de Leon was a monk and he is recognized by historians as the first teacher for deaf children while De L’ Epee was a philanthropic educator recognized widely for his successful use of sign language for teaching deaf people. Brentari(2010) has pointed out that “ The more widespread use of signed communication among British deaf people, however, most certainly began with the advent of the industrial revolution from the 1750s and its accompanying social and economic changes”

Prior to the foundation of this school, deaf children were taught in schools run by the Local Education Authorities (L.E.A.s) and deaf education was not considered as some kind of special education.The school of Thomas Braidwood proves to be extremely successful in teaching, reading and writing to deaf students and many of his students later on prove later on that hearing loss is not something that affects a person’s learning ability. One notable name among such pupils was John Goodricke who even earn the prestigious Copley Medal from the Royal Society for his pioneering work in the field of