While most children her age were learning in classrooms, Anne realised that helen wasn;s quite ready for that . Without a sufficient vocabulary, Helen couldn't grasp lessons effectively. The challenge was figuring out the best way to teach her the essential words. Although Helen's behaviour had improved she was still very energetic. Anne knew that traditional clasroom settings wouldn;t suit her teaching style. Instead she aimed for Helen to learn by exploring her environment.
learning Through Exploration
The world became their classroom and their indoor time was filled with playful activies. One of their favourite games was a version of hide- and- seek, where Anne would hide specific objects for Helen to find. Outdoors they enjoyed long walks, where Helen learnt about nature and her surroundings. she felt crickets and their chirping legs, experienced the hatching of a baby chick and explored new plants as they grew from the soil. One of their cherished spots was keller's landing an old dock on the Tennessee River about two miles from ivy Green at keller's landing they played in the mud building dams digging lahes and creating mountains. while helen enjoyed these activities she didn't realise that Anne was subtly teaching her geography through play.
Learning to Read
Anne was prepared to teach helen how to read, starting with familiarising her with the letters of the alphabet. she created paper cards with raised letters and placed them on top of objects they representsd like b-o-x'' on a box. Helen initially didn't grasp the concept so Anne hand on a new card and spelled out the leter ''a'' on Helen's other hand. Helen understood immediately and learnt the entire alphabet by the end of the day. Anne then introducced words. she had a book with raied letters and placed helen's fing er on the word ''c-a-t'' while spelling it out in Helen's other hand. Helen was excited to recognise the word. soon, they turned reading into a game, racing to find words from the book.
Vanshi
Verified Author Expert@DigitalDiaryWefru