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Helen Keller: Families
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Helen Keller could not learn to talk, because she could not hear. She was afraid to walk unless she was clinging to her mother's long skirts. She would throw wild temper tantrums, driven to frustration by her inability to express herself. She would often refuse to let anyone comb her hair or straighten her clothes. Some in her family urged her mother to have her put away.
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An account of Helen's first months must come from her mother, Kate Adams Keller, and other relatives. It was reported that at six months she could say "How d'ye" and "tea, tea, tea." She ... knew the meaning of the word "water," which she pronounced "wah-wah." When she was a year old, she took her first steps, attracted, she was told later, "by the flickering shadows of leaves that danced in the sunlight on the smooth floor." Her vision was excellent. She could spot needles and buttons on the floor that no one else in the family could find.
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Helen was extremely intelligent and tried to understand her surroundings through touch, smell and taste. However, she began to realize that her family members spoke to one another with their mouths instead of using signs as she did. Feeling their moving lips, she flew into a rage when she was unable to join in the conversation. By the age of 6, Helen later wrote in her autobiography, “the need of some means of communication became so urgent that these outbursts occurred daily, sometimes hourly.”
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In February 1882, when Helen was nineteen months old, she developed a severe congestion of the stomach and brain. The nature of her ailment, which was called "brain fever" by the doctors of the period, remains a mystery to this day. Some modern doctors believe it was scarlet fever, a contagious disease that is caused by a hemolytic streptococcus, while others are of the opinion that her symptoms were more indicative of meningitis, an inflammation of the delicate membranes that cover the spinal cord and brain. In any event, for several days the family doctor thought she would die. But the fever gradually subsided, and the child fell into a deceptively quiet sleep. Her eyes... continued to pain her.
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The following years were very difficult for Helen and her family. She became frustrated that she couldn't understand what was going on around her, so she started acting very badly. She smashed dishes and lamps. Sometimes she had screaming tantrums. Her parents didn't know what to do. Some relatives thought she should be put away in an institution.
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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 had to do something to help her.
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