Question

Helen Keller is an example of a well-known member of the Deaf community, though she was also blind. As a child, Helen developed her own version of home signing that allowed her to communicate a little bit with her family, but eventually her parents hired a teacher (Annie Sullivan) to teach her sign language. Conduct 5-10 minutes of research about how Sullivan was able to successfully teach Keller to sign. What obstacles do you think they faced as Keller was learning to sign without the benefit of being able to see what Sullivan was teaching her

Answer 1

Sullivan was able to teach Keller successfully by fingerspelling, gesturing, using Braille, and vocal training. Some obstacles that Keller faced learning to sign without seeing her instructor would most likely include having to learn sign through muscle memory and visualization in her head instead of seeing and repeating. Sullivan had to be strict and push Keller to be repetitive in learning the Signs while having to hold Keller's hands to show her how to sign and she could describe signs by fingerspelling.