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What was the most important day in Hellen Keller's life? How did she learn to communicate for first time since becoming blind and deaf?

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TEACHERSAGE | CERTIFIED EDUCATOR

The most important day in Helen Keller's life, according to her, was the day MISS Sullivan arrived. Keller writes:

The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrasts between the TWO lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old.

Helen learned to communicate for the first time since becoming blind and deaf because of Miss Sullivan. For weeks, Miss Sullivan had been trying to get Helen to understand that her finger motions on Helen's palm were a form of writing that corresponded to objects Helen held. For instance, Miss Sullivan would hand Helen a doll and write the word doll on her hand. Helen was amused, and even repeated the motions on her mother's palm, but didn't make the connection between the motions and the object.

However, when Miss Sullivan SPELLING out water on her hand while water was running on it from the pump, Helen suddenly understood what was going on, and in that instant, her whole world transformed. Suddenly, she could communicate and no longer had to live isolated in a world of loneliness and frustration.

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MRSHH | CERTIFIED EDUCATOR

The most important day in Helen Keller's life was when Miss Sullivan's attempts to communicate with her were finally successful. Miss Sullivan repeatedly tried fingerspelling into Helen's palm to help her associate words with objects. Helen was confused and thought of it as more of a game. One day, Miss Sullivan took Helen to an outdoor water pump on the Keller property. She held the girl's hand under it and spelled "w-a-t-e-r" onto her palm as the liquid poured out. For the first time, Helen made the connection between what was spelled into her hand and the water that was flowing through her fingers. Helen described that moment in her autobiography The Story of My Life:

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