[stylist] Laura Bridgeman

[Barbara Hammel]

Laura Bridgeman was born in New Hampshire in 1829.  She was a vey sickly child and at the age of three contracted scarlet fever which left her deaf, blind and with no sense of smell.  Near the age of ten she went to the Perkins School where she essentially learned language in an afternoon.  Samuel would show her an object and run her fingers over the word.  I'm guessing then it was raised print.  She learned to pair words with objects, then spell words.  I think it said that after a year of growing her vocabulary she learned that she could express her own thoughts.  I forgot, after she learned how to spell the words with letters, Samuel introduced her to finger spelling.
That's what I found out in about ten minutes.  If I had more time I may look her up and see what became of her as an adult.
Barbara