Ovide Decroly

  He was born on July 23, 1871 in Renaix (Belgium). He was educated in an open environment and the influence of a feeling for the scientific quest by his father. graduated in Medicine at the Medical School of Brussels in 1897 and traveled to Berlin and Paris, where he continued studies in neurology and psychiatry.
When he returned to Belgium is dedicated to the rehabilitation of children with mental retardation. In 1901 he founded in his own house in Brussels on school École d'Enseignement Spécial pour Enfants Irreguliers. In 1907 the institution created in Ixelles École de l'Ermitage, the famous' Ecole pour la vie par la vie "(School for Life by life), which applied the methods and materials previously experienced with children he called"irregular "This time with children of" normal intelligence. "This school was dedicated at the outset only the elementary cycle, but later was expanded to also become nursery school, elementary and high school. During this period he honed his theories of "globalization" and the focus of interest. In 1920 he became professor of health psychology and education at the University of Brussels. In 1930 ill and two years later, on September 12, 1932 died in the town of Brabant, Brussels

Works
• The measurement of intelligence of the child ').
• Acts of individual psychology and experimental psychology (1908)
• Treatment and education of handicapped children (1915)
• Role of Globalization (1923)
• La liberté et l'éducation, 1925 ('The freedom of education').
• L'évolution de l'affectivité, 1927 ('The evolution of emotion').
• The practice of intelligence tests (1928)
• The role of globalization and other writings.

Decroly, like Montessori, began inquiring about the problems of the mentally retarded. He applied the scientific method to investigate the factors that can favorably altering, intellectual, emotional and motor development of children subjected to observation.