The Concepts And Methods Used In Helen Keller’s Instruction

I choose to use Helen Keller’s life narrative for my case study research. On June 27, 1880, in the tiny Alabaman town of Tuscumbia, Helen Keller was born. When Helen was diagnosed with “acute congestion of the stomach and brain,” the good times in her life came to an abrupt end. The attending physician believed she wouldn’t survive. However, her fever subsided one morning. Although their daughter would never see or hear them again, her family felt a profound sense of relief. She was so little when she got sick that she has no memory of the world before it became dark. Helen Keller proved to be a wise and powerful person who utilized her struggles and disabilities to motivate others. She was both an educator and a supporter of the blind and deaf.

The difficulties Helen overcome make her example particularly noteworthy for research. After her abrupt sickness, she not only lost her hearing but also became blind. She never allowed her flaws to overpower her talents. She mastered the skills of writing, reading, speaking, and arithmetic through perseverance and hard effort. Nobody believed that she could ever be taught. How might a person who is blind and deaf learn? Her writing and speaking abilities change dramatically throughout her book, “The Story of My Life.” along with those who gave her support throughout her upbringing. This story demonstrates how crucial it is to have the appropriate instructors and a good educational experience. Helen benefitted from early intervention, which was beneficial. This early intervention was crucial to preventing her from falling too far behind or losing her capacity for learning. This story is significant because it demonstrates how a person with a disability develops language and grammar. that the outcome will be the same even if progress is sluggish.

Helen’s situation was unusual. She was robbed of two crucial senses at a very young age. She remembers tossing and turning in pain, as well as a hot, dry sensation behind her eyelids, while her mother tried to calm her gently. However, all of these recollections are transitory, and she often questions if they are fake or made up. Helen’s condition made her used to the darkness and stillness around her, to the point that she even forgot that things had previously been different. Helen experienced glimpses of nature throughout her first nineteen months of existence despite the darkness she now found herself in, and since she had even only briefly seen fields, trees, and flowers, she would never forget them. Helen used gestures and body language to communicate in the early aftermath of her sickness. Helen sometimes became enraged when she couldn’t comprehend someone and would lose her temper. Her early development deviated from the usual. She never accomplished the milestone in language, reading, writing, or even general communication on time. She quickly and effectively picked up new skills and adapted to her environment. She was aware that other individuals were unlike her in that they spoke instead of using signals to convey their thoughts. Helen often grew quite irate and would have fits and tantrums when verbal communication would not get the desired outcomes. These outbursts highlighted Helen’s youthful age. She was having trouble communicating and would act like a kid as a result. Helen’s drive to express herself developed as she got older. The meager signals she could muster proved ineffective, and her desperation increased, making her more prone to more ferocious fits and tantrums. Helen became irritated because she was unable to speak. She then resorted to tantrums, which is what young children do when they lack the words to talk to their parents. Helen’s parents were worried since she lagged behind in every developmental area. Since they lived far from any schools for the blind or deaf and did not expect they would be able to find Helen a specialized tutor, her parents described themselves as “grieved and bewildered.” Helen’s parents also questioned if Helen was indeed teachable. Miss Sullivan, a teacher, was eventually located, and she assisted Helen in developing into who she is today. Her studies and progress started as soon as Miss Sullivan arrived. When Miss Sullivan brought her outdoors and let her experience water gushing out of the spout before writing the word “water” into her palm, she discovered the world of language. It was at this point that Helen realized what she was experiencing was referred to as “water.” Through imitation, Helen started learning how to spell words. Although it took her some time to realize that everything had a name, she picked it up fast. Because Miss Sullivan tried to talk to Helen like she would any hearing kid, Helen’s schooling was so effective. She would show her how language is put together by writing whole phrases into her palm. Due to the fact that it takes a hearing person some time to develop complete conversational skills, it took her a very long time—longer than it did for most youngsters. Miss Sullivan recognized Helen’s difficulties as a blind and deaf person. Since the last time Helen participated in a conversation, she is unable to recognize the vocal tones that indicate the importance of certain phrases or to read cues from the speaker’s emotions on their faces. Helen’s next challenge was to learn how to read once she had mastered word spelling and object naming. Miss Sullivan gave her cardboard slips with raised lettering on them as a way of teaching her this. She eventually became used to associating these words with their corresponding items and grouping them into sentences that she would act out using the things themselves. This progressed into the capacity to read whole novels. Helen received her education entirely via hands-on experience using her senses of touch, taste, and smell. She acquired knowledge significantly differently than typical kids. Children in a traditional classroom would be learning and repeating information. Speaking was Helen’s next educational objective. Despite being unable to hear, she was enthralled by sounds and speech as a young child. She would place her fingers on her mother’s face when she was sitting on her lap and feel how her lips moved while she talked. As a youngster, she would produce noises that weren’t words but yet sounded like something. She would weep and laugh like she typically would, and she would also produce vocal noises to warm up her vocal chords. Nobody thought she had a chance of communicating at all. Mimicking and repetition are the sources of language and speech. Helen started learning to talk with Miss Sarah Fuller at the Horace Mann School. Helen would attempt to emulate Miss Fuller once she had allowed her to sense the position of her own lips and tongue while speaking. She began by saying, “It is warm.” Nobody could ever forget the opening statement she made, even her. Helen finally developed into a talented writer. For a long time, Helen’s grammar and writing both improved. She began by putting together illogical phrases without any punctuation and progressed to employing adjectives and using her words to paint detailed images. After college, Helen’s life began to flourish. Helen had a passion for writing and utilized it to connect with Americans and eventually millions of people across the world. She always stood out for the rights of the underprivileged and utilized her writing prowess to challenge the status quo. She opposed American engagement in World War I as a pacifist. She championed workers’ rights as a fervent socialist. She was also an early member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a persistent champion for women’s suffrage. Helen changed the world with her newly discovered voice. Helen Keller’s life story is one to keep in mind.

The interactionist/social learning theory, Piaget’s phases of cognitive development, and Piaget’s Adaptation were the three theories Helen demonstrated. According to Vygotski’s interactionist/social learning theory, language is both a biological and an environmental process. According to this notion, the capacity to acquire a language is something you possess from birth, but it is also shaped by your surroundings and the language you hear around you. Four phases make up Piaget’s theory of cognitive development: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operation. The theory addresses the nature of knowledge as well as how people acquire, create, and utilize it across time. Piaget’s idea of adaptation is the last hypothesis. To adapt, a youngster must alter in response to environmental conditions. Assimilation and accommodation are two of the subprocesses that make up adaptation. Applying earlier notions to new ones is assimilation. A idea is accommodated when it is changed in response to new knowledge. THEORIES
According to Vygotski’s interactionist/social learning theory, children’s intense need to engage with the people in their environment drives them to acquire language skills. It contends that social contact comes before development and that socialization and social conduct lead to awareness and intellect. Helen was taught how to communicate, yet she is innately predisposed to learning languages. Helen was taught the fundamentals of language by Miss Sullivan, such as what word best describes the thing, but she quickly understood the concept and was able to transform it into a phrase and an idea. Helen would not have learned language without the assistance of Miss Sullivan, but she would not have been able to learn since she was deaf and unable to see or hear language. The delicate stage of language development is now. A youngster may readily assimilate knowledge at this time in a certain manner. After the time period, the skill may still be learnt, although less successfully. Since Helen would find it difficult to acquire a language beyond a certain age, it was critical that she start learning it now.

The phases of cognitive development proposed by Piaget serve as a model for how the mind interprets new information. Piaget thought that children actively participate in their education, functioning somewhat like young scientists as they conduct experiments, record observations, and gain knowledge of the outside world. Children constantly gain new knowledge, expand upon current knowledge, and modify long-held beliefs to account for new information as they interact with the world around them. It is difficult to classify Helen in a certain stage at a given moment because of her delayed cognitive development. According to Piaget’s theory, the kid progresses through them in chronological sequence, but Helen didn’t follow this or the age at which the theory appears. She exhibits elements of the sensorimotor stage, for instance, since she touches and smells the environment. Since she is blind and deaf, she remains in this stage until she is two years old. The formal operational stage is an additional step. She is starting to understand moral reasoning as well as abstract concepts like the concept of love and the thinking process. When she categorizes information or items on the spot, she demonstrates the concrete operational stage. Helen doesn’t adhere to these phases but instead incorporates elements of each.

Assimilation and accommodation are the two subprocesses that make up Piaget’s theory of adaptation. The capacity to adapt to new knowledge and experiences is known as adaptation. Simply adapting to your continuously changing surroundings is learning. Assimilation is the process through which individuals adapt knowledge from the outside world to fit with their own thoughts and notions. People adjust their mental representations to match new knowledge as part of the accommodation process. Helen had to develop her ability to adapt to her ever-changing surroundings throughout her life. She had to adjust since she wasn’t born blind and deaf. She had to adjust to a new teaching style, new instructors, new concepts, and new classes. Every day that Helen learnt something new, her life altered. Helen constantly learned new things by using her sense of touch. She used Piaget’s assimilation and accommodation theories of adaptation. She made accommodations when she modified her general perspective of nature by using her new understanding that nature can be cruel, saying that “under softest touch lay dangerous claws.” Helen utilized assimilation to learn the word for water. Then she understood that everything has a name and that sentences may be made up of words.

CONCLUSION

In contrast to earlier situations, like Genie, the case of Helen Keller was particularly unique. Helen excelled in all areas of intellect. Nothing prevented Helen from succeeding, and she was provided all the tools she needed. Reading about how she learned to talk, write, read, and perform arithmetic was mind-blowing. She was also instructed on how to do each activity. She was a really intelligent woman. The encouragement she received along the way was also lovely to watch. Miss Sullivan was just fantastic and the ideal teacher for Helen. Observing Helen’s writing skills grow was mostly fascinating. Part 2 of the book contains letters that you wouldn’t realize were written by a blind and deaf individual. It just served to demonstrate her brilliance and depth of knowledge. Her work was of the highest grade, and her English was flawless. Letters in the beginning underwent a 360-degree change. Helen and all of her instructors helped her learn how to correctly utilize appropriate language by being patient and persistent. Her work is made even more astounding by the knowledge that she had struggled with sentence structure and word meaning. She serves as an example for everyone to never give up. This instance taught me that nothing is impossible and that you can succeed if you put your mind to it.