Elias Peter Hansen Hofgaard (né Hansen; 25 November 1856 – 15 November 1906) was a Norwegian pioneer educator of the deaf. Hofgaard was born in

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, and was brother-in-law of Lars Havstad. Hofgaard had employed the " speaking method" on very talented deaf students with good results; still it surprised many when he declared that he would use the method with the deafblind girl Ragnhild Tollefsdatter Kåta, probably among the first deafblind who learned to talk. Hofgaard reasoned that a deaf and blind child would have most use of learning to speak (rather than using e.g. the finger alphabet). Hofgaard first taught Kåta to pronounce the letters, then to combine two letters into a syllable, and finally multi-syllabic words before trying to attach meaning to what had, until then, been presented as a complicated game. The first words used were: ('watch'), ('foot'), and ('table'). The words were associated with the objects over several days until Kåta understood that the words named the object. After that she learned to understand others by placing her hand on their lips as they spoke. She learned to write and to read

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. During the summer of 1889, Kåta met with Mary Swift Lamson (1822–1909) who had taught

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at the

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. At that time, Mrs. Lamson reported that Kåta could already speak simple sentences. In 1890, ten-year-old

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was introduced to the story of Kåta and was inspired by her ability to learn to speak. He died in a railway accident in

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in 1906. He established in

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in 1882, and chaired the school for 25 years. He is particularly known for having educated Kåta.

References

1856 births 1906 deaths People from Halden Norwegian educators Norwegian disability rights activists Railway accident deaths in Norway Founders of Norwegian schools and colleges Educators of the deaf {{Norway-bio-stub

See also

References