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
General
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
Miss Keller has told how she learned to speak. Miss Sullivan's account
in her address at Chautauqua, in July, 1894, at the meeting of The
American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf, is
substantially like Miss Keller's in points of fact.
MISS SULLIVAN'S ACCOUNT OF MISS KELLER'S SPEECH
It was three years from the time when Helen began to communicate by
means of the manual alphabet that she received her first lesson in the
more natural and universal medium of human intercourse--oral language.
She had become very proficient in the use of the manual alphabet, which
was her only means of communication with the outside world; through it
she had acquired a vocabulary which enabled her to converse freely,
read intelligently, and write with comparative ease and correctness.
Nevertheless, the impulse to utter audible sounds was strong within
her, and the constant efforts which I made to repress this instinctive
tendency, which I feared in time would become unpleasant, were of no
avail. I made no effort to teach her to speak, because I regarded her
inability to watch the lips of others as an insurmountable obstacle.
But she gradually became conscious that her way of communicating was
different from that used by those around her, and one day her thoughts
found expression. "How do the blind girls know what to say with their
mouths? Why do you not teach me to talk like them? Do deaf children ever
learn to speak?" I explained to her that some deaf children were taught
to speak, but that they could see their teachers' mouths, and that that
was a very great assistance to them. But she interrupted me to say
she was very sure she could feel my mouth very well. Soon after this
conversation, a lady came to see her and told her about the deaf and
blind Norwegian child, Ragnhild Kaata, who had been taught to speak and
understand what her teacher said to her by touching his lips with her
fingers. She at once resolved to learn to speak, and from that day to
this she has never wavered in that resolution. She began immediately
to make sounds which she called speaking, and I saw the necessity of
correct instruction, since her heart was set upon learning to talk; and,
feeling my own incompetence to teach her, never having given the subject
of articulation serious study, I went with my pupil for advice and
assistance, to Miss Sarah Fuller. Miss Fuller was delighted with Helen's
earnestness and enthusiasm, and at once began to teach her. In a few
lessons she learned nearly all of the English sounds, and in less than a
month she was able to articulate a great many words distinctly. From
the first she was not content to be drilled in single sounds, but was
impatient to pronounce words and sentences. The length of the word
or the difficulty of the arrangement of the elements never seemed to
discourage her. But, with all her eagerness and intelligence, learning
to speak taxed her powers to the utmost. But there was satisfaction
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account