- Born:
- December 21, 1829, Hanover, New Hampshire, U.S.
- Died:
- May 24, 1889, Boston, Massachusetts (aged 59)
Laura Dewey Bridgman
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Who was Laura Dewey Bridgman?
Laura Dewey Bridgman (1829-1889) was the first deaf and blind person to learn to communicate using finger spelling and the written word. At age two, she contracted scarlet fever, which caused her to lose her senses of hearing, sight, smell, and taste.
In 1837, Bridgman entered the New-England Institution for the Education of the Blind where she mastered receptive and expressive language skills by using her fingers to recognize raised letters and to deliver tactile spelling of ordinary English words. By 1850, she had acquired learning in history, literature, mathematics, and philosophy. Charles Dickens met Bridgman in 1842 and wrote about her skills, education, and personality, increasing her fame.
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What challenges did Laura Dewey Bridgman face in her early life?
Laura Dewey Bridgman faced significant challenges early in life. At the age of two, she contracted scarlet fever, which resulted in the loss of her senses of hearing, sight, smell, and taste. Despite these sensory deficits, she developed a basic form of gesturing to communicate with her family. In 1837, at the age of seven, Bridgman entered the New-England Institution for the Education of the Blind where she learned to communicate using finger spelling and the written word, becoming the first blind and deaf person to do so in the English-speaking world.
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How did Laura Dewey Bridgman learn to communicate without sight or hearing?
Laura Dewey Bridgman was the first deaf-blind person to learn to communicate using finger spelling and the written word. At age two, she lost her hearing, sight, smell, and taste due to scarlet fever, but she still used rudimentary gestures to communicate with her family. In 1837, she entered the Perkins School for the Blind, where superintendent Samuel G. Howe and other teachers helped her master language skills. She used her fingers to recognize raised letters and to receive and deliver tactile spelling. She also learned to write using a block-lettering device, acquiring knowledge in history, literature, mathematics, and philosophy. By 1850, her formal education was complete.
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Who helped Laura Bridgman get an education, and where did she study?
Samuel Gridley Howe, an American educator, significantly contributed to Laura Bridgman's education. In 1837, Bridgman began studying at the New-England Institution for the Education of the Blind (later known as the Perkins School for the Blind) in Boston, Massachusetts, where she remained for the rest of her life. Under Howe's direction, along with other teachers like Lydia Drew, Mary Swift (Lamson), and Sarah Wight, Bridgman learned to communicate using finger spelling and the written word. By 1850, her education included history, literature, mathematics, and philosophy.
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How did Laura Bridgman's achievements help change education for people with disabilities?
Laura Bridgman's achievements significantly influenced education for individuals with disabilities. As the first deaf-blind person to learn communication through finger spelling and the written word, Bridgman's success at the Perkins School for the Blind, under the direction of Samuel G. Howe, demonstrated that individuals with disabilities could indeed learn and communicate effectively.
Bridgman's fame, amplified by mentions in Charles Dickens' American Notes, helped to disseminate the idea that people with disabilities could be independent, contributing members of society. Howe used Bridgman's example to advocate for the establishment of schools for the blind, shifting the perception of educating the blind from a charitable act to an entitlement. Her accomplishments paved the way for the integration of students with disabilities into mainstream education.
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How did Laura Dewey Bridgman influence the education of other famous students, such as Helen Keller?
Laura Dewey Bridgman, the first deaf-blind person to learn communication through finger spelling and writing, significantly influenced the education of those with similar disabilities. Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller's teacher, studied Samuel Gridley Howe's work with Bridgman before teaching Keller. Howe, the director of the Perkins Institution for the Blind, where Bridgman was educated, used her story to advocate for blind schools, further spreading her influence.
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Laura Dewey Bridgman (born December 21, 1829, Hanover, New Hampshire, U.S.—died May 24, 1889, Boston, Massachusetts) was the first blind and deaf person in the English-speaking world to learn to communicate using finger spelling and the written word. Predating Helen Keller by nearly two generations, Bridgman was well known for her ability to exchange conversation with teachers, family, peers, and a curious public.
At age two she contracted scarlet fever, which caused her to lose her senses of hearing, sight, smell, and taste. Despite her sensory deficits, she acquired a form of rudimentary gesturing that she used to communicate with her family. In 1837 Bridgman entered the New-England Institution for the Education of the Blind (later known as the Perkins School for the Blind) in Boston, Massachusetts, where she lived for the remainder of her life. Under the direction of American educator Samuel G. Howe, superintendent of the school, and several other teachers there, including Lydia Drew, Mary Swift (Lamson), and Sarah Wight, Bridgman mastered receptive and expressive language skills by using her fingers to recognize raised letters of the English alphabet and to receive and deliver tactile spelling of ordinary English words. She also learned to write by using a block-lettering device. With those skills in place, she acquired knowledge about the natural and human-made world through deliberate and sometimes unplanned tactile encounters with objects. By the time her formal education ended in 1850, she had acquired learning in history, literature, mathematics, and philosophy.
In 1841 Howe commissioned Sophia Peabody, who would soon marry writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, to sculpt a clay bust of Bridgman. Upon its completion, Howe had Peabody make several plaster casts of the bust that he took with him on an extended journey through the American South and Old Northwest (Northwest Territory). Advocating for the establishment of blind schools in those regions, Howe left Peabody’s busts of Bridgman with influential legislators, thus spreading the prominence of his blind and deaf student throughout the country.
Bridgman’s fame spread even further a year later. In January 1842, during his first visit to the United States, the novelist Charles Dickens met Bridgman, who was 12 years old, and on his return to England he devoted a chapter of his American Notes (1842) to the story of her “finger language” skills, her education, and her gregarious personality. Not long after, written letters and autographs from Bridgman became prized items throughout the English-speaking world.
Bridgman spent her adult years at the Perkins School, where an endowment on her behalf covered her room and board. Most of her days were spent doing needlework, writing letters, and reading the Bible and religious tracts. She enjoyed communicating with staff, visitors, and family members who could converse with her through finger spelling. She often visited her family in New Hampshire, usually during the summer months. Her thin stature and several periods in her life when she ate little caused her caregivers great concern, leading some contemporary scholars to suggest that Bridgman may have lived with anorexia nervosa.