Tema

| HELEN KELLERBorn in 1880 - Died in 1968

| |
Helen Keller at the age of 19 months,(not quite 2 years old) was a happy, healthy child. She was already saying a few words.

Then she had ahigh fever which caused her to become deaf and blind. No longer could she see nor hear. She felt lost. She would hang on to her mother's skirt to get around. She would feel of people's hands to try tofind out what they were doing. She learned to do many things this way. She learned to milk a cow and knead the bread dough.

She could recognize people by feeling of their faces or their clothes.She made up signs with her hands so she could "talk" to her family. She had 60 different signs. If she wanted bread, she pretended to be cutting a loaf. If she wanted ice cream, she would hug hershoulders and shiver.
| | Helen was a very bright child. She became very frustrated * because she couldn't talk. She became very angry and began to throw temper tantrums * . The family knew they hadto do something to help her.

They found a teacher named Anne Sullivan. Miss Sullivan herself had been blind, but had an operation and regained her sight. She understood what Helen was feeling.She taught Helen the signs for the letters of the alphabet. Then she would "spell" the words in Helen's hand to communicate * with her. |
One day Anne led Helen to the water pump and pumped water onher hand. She spelled the letters W-A-T-E-R as the water ran over Helen's hand. She did this over and over again. At last it dawned on Helen that the word "water" meant the water which she feltpouring over her hand. This opened up a whole new world for her. She ran everywhere asking Anne the name of different things and Anne would spell the words in her hand. This was the key which unlocked theworld for her.
She eventually stopped having the tantrums. Anne taught her for years. Helen learned to read Braille * . This was a system of raised dots representing letters. A blind person could...