Chapter 13 Summary

The spring of 1890 found Helen restless and frustrated once again. When she was younger, her homemade sign language was an adequate mode of expression. Now, her need to communicate had grown beyond fingerspelling. She wanted to learn to speak. Her friends discouraged her, trying to protect her from disappointment. However, Helen learned about Ragnhild Kaata, a deaf and blind girl in Norway, who had learned to talk. Helen nagged Anne Sullivan until the teacher took her to see Sarah Fuller, principal of the Horace Mann School for the Deaf.

Fuller herself became Helen's speech teacher. Helen felt the positions of Fuller's tongue and lips as she made sounds. As usual, Helen was a quick learner. Her first spoken sentence was, "It is warm." Sarah Fuller gave Helen the elements of speech in eleven sessions. The rest of Helen's progress was due to constant...