The Story of My Life: With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert MacyKeller, Helen
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The Story of My Life: With her letters (1887-1901) and a supplementary account of her education, including passages from the reports and letters of her teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, by John Albert Macy
Keller, Helen
Deafblind women -- United States -- Biography; Keller, Helen, 1880-1968
On our way back to the house everything she touched had to be named for
her, and repetition was seldom necessary. Neither the length of the
word nor the combination of letters seems to make any difference to the
child. Indeed, she remembers HELIOTROPE and CHRYSANTHEMUM more readily
than she does shorter names. At the end of August she knew 625 words.
This lesson was followed by one on words indicative of place-relations.
Her dress was put IN a trunk, and then ON it, and these prepositions
were spelled for her. Very soon she learned the difference between ON
and IN, though it was some time before she could use these words in
sentences of her own. Whenever it was possible she was made the actor in
the lesson, and was delighted to stand ON the chair, and to be put INTO
the wardrobe. In connection with this lesson she learned the names
of the members of the family and the word IS. "Helen is in wardrobe,"
"Mildred is in crib," "Box is on table," "Papa is on bed," are specimens
of sentences constructed by her during the latter part of April.
Next came a lesson on words expressive of positive quality. For the
first lesson I had two balls, one made of worsted, large and soft, the
other a bullet. She perceived the difference in size at once. Taking
the bullet she made her habitual sign for SMALL--that is, by pinching
a little bit of the skin of one hand. Then she took the other ball and
made her sign for LARGE by spreading both hands over it. I substituted
the adjectives LARGE and SMALL for those signs. Then her attention was
called to the hardness of the one ball and the softness of the other,
and she learned SOFT and HARD. A few minutes afterward she felt of her
little sister's head and said to her mother, "Mildred's head is small
and hard." Next I tried to teach her the meaning of FAST and SLOW. She
helped me wind some worsted one day, first rapidly and afterward slowly.
I then said to her with the finger alphabet, "wind fast," or "wind
slow," holding her hands and showing her how to do as I wished. The next
day, while exercising, she spelled to me, "Helen wind fast," and began
to walk rapidly. Then she said, "Helen wind slow," again suiting the
action to the words.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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