Ch.19 The Story of Helen Keller, Pt.1

Helen's Early Life

• Helen Keller was born in 1880.
• She learned to crawl, walk, and began learning to talk early in her childhood.
• When Helen was about a year and a half old, she became extremely ill.
• She developed a high fever, leaving her parents feeling helpless.
• The fever eventually broke, but Helen remained unresponsive.
• Her parents soon realized that she had become blind and deaf.
• Despite her physical health, her parents struggled to know how to care for her.
• Helen had a quick and intelligent mind but could not ask or receive answers.

Communication and Frustration

• Helen developed her own signs for various things.
• These signs included "mother," "father," "food," "yes," and "no."
• She attempted to understand speech by feeling people's lips and voice box vibrations.
• Helen would mimic these movements without understanding their meaning.
• At age 5, her little sister Mildred was born.
• Helen struggled to understand the concept of a baby sister.
• She grew frustrated by the stress of being in isolation
• Helen's frustration led to an incident where she dumped Mildred out of her cradle near the fire.
• Her parents feared she might harm herself or her sister.

Seeking Help and Meeting Alexander Graham Bell

• The only option for people with such disabilities was confinement in state-run insane asylums.
• Asylums were horrible institutions, where people were treated with less consideration because of their handicaps
• Helen's parents were afraid to leave her unsupervised at home.
• A doctor told the Keller family that there was no cure for Helen, but referred them to speech specialist.
• Helen met Alexander Graham Bell, a friend of the doctor.
• Bell told them about a special school for the blind.

A New Hope: Perkins Institute and Annie Sullivan

• The Perkins Institute for the blind was in Boston
• A deaf and blind girl had attended Perkins and learned to communicate previously.
• Alexander Graham Bell advised Helen's parents to contact Perkins for a teacher.
• Miss Annie Sullivan's arrival transformed Helen's life.
• Prior to Sullivan, Helen had never been told "NO".
• Sullivan, a former Perkins student, knew what was needed to reach Helen,
• Sullivan knew it would take hard work, determination, and retraining.

Initial Lessons and Challenges

• Helen quickly grasped the manual alphabet that Sullivan taught.
• She signed "D-O-L-L" but did not understand it corresponded to the doll in her hand.
• Similarly, she could sign "M-O-T-H-E-R" without knowing it meant her own mother.
• More importantly, Sullivan needed to teach Helen how to behave.
• Sullivan knew it would be impossible to teach Helen with her bad behavior.
• Helen was extremely strong-willed and fought Sullivan.

The Dining Room Confrontation

• Soon after Sullivan's arrival, the family witnessed a battle of wills during dinner.
• Helen was accustomed to eating from everyone's plates around the table.
• When Helen reached for Sullivan's plate, her hand was slapped away.
• After multiple attempts, Sullivan made everyone leave the room except her and Helen.
• Sullivan insisted that Helen sit in her own chair and eat with a spoon, but Helen refused.
• Finally, Helen understood that she had met her match.
• She ate her food off of her own plate with her spoon after being pushed to by Sullivan.
• After the fight in the dining room, Sullivan knew that needed to change with Helen.
• Helen would run to her parents for candy for behaving badly.

Isolation and Progress

• Sullivan recognized the need to calm Helen's behavior through self-control.
• Sullivan believed that an intelligent person was locked deep inside Helen,
• Sullivan requested time alone with Helen.
• Helen moved to the guest cottage with Sullivan.
• Sullivan trained Helen to sit properly and eat with her fork.
• Helen stopped throwing tantrums and learned finger signs well.

Breakthrough at the Pump House

• Sullivan aimed for Helen to explore and discover answers to unanswerable questions
• During a walk, they stopped at the pump house for a drink.
• Helen enjoyed the dampness of the pumphouse
• Sullivan pumped water over Helen's hand and spelled "W-A-T-E-R" into her hand.
• Helen mimicked the sign.
• Helen did not understand what Sullivan was teaching.
• After many times spelling the name of the cold thing on her hand, Helen understood the meaning water.
• Helen began to understand and name each object around her.
• She increased her intelligence to name most of the objects around her.