Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos

work by Bonet

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July 13, 2026

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Juan Pablo Bonet's Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos (1620) was a pioneering work in the education of the deaf. Bonet, a Spanish cleric, developed a method to improve communication skills for deaf individuals. His approach, building on earlier work, involved teaching the phonetic values of letters, emphasizing correct lip and tongue placement for articulation. He also incorporated manual signs and a finger alphabet to aid in teaching deaf individuals to speak and communicate. This work represents an early effort to provide structured methods for deaf education, focusing on both written language and spoken articulation.1

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Juan Pablo Bonet
1520–84), is detailed in his Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos (1620; “Reduction of the Letters of the Alphabet and Method of Teaching Deaf-Mutes to Speak”). Bonet used every technique available in developing this approach. Beginning with the study of written words, Bonet…
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1520–84), is detailed in his Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos (1620; “Reduction of the Letters of the Alphabet and Method of Teaching Deaf-Mutes to Speak”). Bonet used every technique available in developing this approach. Beginning with the study of written words, Bonet…
Read More