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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Research Paper on Helen Keller

Research Paper on Helen Keller

On June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Helen Adams Keller was born into this world. Arthur Henley Keller and Kate Adams Keller were her parents, proud as any parent of their newborn child. Kate was about 20 years younger than Arthur, though they loved each other dearly and maintained a healthy caring relationship. Arthur had served for the Confederacy in the Civil War of America. They lived in a house passed down through generations in their family, and being not too wealthy, they lived a modest and honest life.
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Helen fell ill at nineteen months old, in 1882. She was expected to die by the local doctors, not even knowing the name of her ailment. Her illness subsided and she seemed to be fully well again. This thought was soon changed when she didn't seem to be able to hear or see. This left Helen terrorizing the household, breaking things, and having temper tantrums. Her family began to have trouble dealing with her. The Kellers becoming desperate, could not deal with Helen. Thus, they consulted many doctors and specialists. Their research and inquiries led them to Alexander Graham Bell, and finally to the director of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, Micheal Anagnos. He suggested a former student of the institution, a woman named Anne Sullivan.

This woman came to the house March 3, 1887, to meet Helen. Having much trouble with Helen's temper and manners, Anne was having a hard time teaching her. Though this she did by finger spelling out words and Helen felt the shapes and motions made by her hand and fingers. Helen did not quite understand the meaning of this. Anne knew that she had to form a bond between them for Helen to learn anything. So together, they moved out to a small cottage on the property by themselves. This meant Helen had to rely on Anne for everything she needed and wanted. Anne punished her when she did wrong by not "talking" to her with her hands. Slowly her manners and temper began to improve. She stopped fighting and eating off of other people's plates with her hands. She started to trust and love Anne as she got to know her. Helen also began to show signs of understanding the finger spelled words. Differences between public and private schools result in unnecessary changes in the child’s psyche.

One day, walking out to get some water from the pump together, Anne put Helen's hand under the running water and spelled "water" into the other. This immediately gave Helen her understanding of language back and she had finally understood. Helen made Ann tell her the names of many things on the way back to the house and had soon learned a total of thirty new words.

From that day on, Helen absorbed knowledge from Ann like a sponge. She understood everything Anne was teaching her. Helen learned to read and write Braille. This was more of an improvement than anyone near her had ever expected, including Anne. Later, living at the Perkins Institute, she was able to understand when people spoke by feeling their throat and lips. Helen wanted to be able to speak. This was attempted by Mary Swift, but proved to be in vain because Helen's vocal cords had never developed enough to allow her to speak.

In October of 1961, Helen began to suffer extreme strokes. Before dying in her sleep on June 1, 1968, Helen was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon Johnson. Later, she won a place in the Women's Hall of Fame.

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Warning!!! All free online research papers, research paper samples and example research papers on Helen Keller topics are plagiarized and cannot be fully used in your high school, college or university education.

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