HELLEN KELLER’S -MY LIFE (Extract) From the beginning of my education Miss Sullivan madeit a practice to speak to me as she would speak to any hearing child; the onlydifference was that she spelled the sentences into my hand instead of speakingthem. If I did not know the words and idioms necessary to express my thoughtsshe supplied them, even suggesting conversation when I was unable to keep up myend of the dialogue. This process was continued for several years; for the deafchild does not learn in a month, or even in two or three years, the numberlessidioms and expressions used in the simplest daily intercourse. The littlehearing child learns these from constant repetition and imitation. Theconversation he hears in his home stimulates his mind and suggests topics andcalls forth the spontaneous expression of his own thoughts. This naturalexchange of ideas is denied to the deaf child. My teacher, realizing this, determined to supply the kinds of stimulus I lacked. This she did by repeatingto me as far as possible, verbatim, what she heard, and by showing me how Icould take part in the conversation. But it was a long time before I venturedto take the initiative, and still longer before I could find somethingappropriate to say at the right time. The deaf and the blind find it very difficultto acquire the amenities of conversation. How much more this difficulty must beaugmented in the case of those who are both deaf and blind! They cannotdistinguish the tone of the voice or, without assistance, go up and down the gamutof tones that give significance to words; nor can they watch the expression ofthe speaker’s face, and a look is often the very soul of what one says.

1.Who was Hellen Keller’steacher? How did she speak to Hellen Keller?

2.How did Hellen Kellerlearn idioms and expressions?

3. How does a normalchild learns from repetition and imitation?

4. Why do you think thenatural exchange of ideas is denied to a deaf child?

5. What are thedifficulties that a blind and deaf child faces in communication?