A child’s first words are a life-defining milestone that parents dote upon, but it’s unheard of for children to remember that transformative moment the way their parents do, or as Helen Keller describes it in her essay. She remembers that suddenly learning one word, “w-a-t-e-r”, showed her that language exists. That moment is when Helen began to appreciate the essential role of language in her internal and external communication: she started to learn to describe and appreciate her experiences. Many children have difficulties developing their language abilities and some are slow to learn the nuances of communicating their thoughts, or to recognize how language shows the feelings of others. Consider my brother for example.
My youngest brother is on the autism spectrum: one of the characteristics of autism is difficulty communicating. Severe autism can make it almost impossible to develop any language skills or to relate thoughts and ideas. My brother was different than the rest of us as a baby. He never made direct eye contact; there are pictures where all you see are the whites of his eyes. He was very quiet, and his reactions were delayed. The rest of us would run through the house yelling and playing, and he would react 30 seconds after we left the room. He was mostly quiet, not talking and not showing any signs of being involved in what was happening around him.
Save your time!
We can take care of your essay
- Proper editing and formatting
- Free revision, title page, and bibliography
- Flexible prices and money-back guarantee
I think my younger brother was in a similar situation to what Helen Keller describes. He did not have a language when he was young: it took a longer time for him than for the rest of us to develop language skills. Without language skills, people can only experience their surroundings as Helen Keller describes in paragraph 2, “I guessed vaguely from my mother’s signs…” and “I did not know what the future held…” My brother engaged with us but he didn’t have an internal dialog that he could use to express ideas. In fact, as Helen describes it, she had no ideas until she had a language.
Helen was isolated due to being deaf and blind, and my brother was isolated due to autism. My brother was unable to communicate with others and like Helen, he acted out in irrational ways. As my brother got older, he was still non-verbal, but we were able to use cues and pictures to show him what was or would be happening. My brother could point to objects to get what he wanted, whereas Helen could not point to objects nor shake her head to indicate ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Helen wrote that on their second day together, the teacher taught her how to sign “d-o-l-l” and, “When I finally succeeded in making the letters correctly, I was flushed with childish pleasure and pride”. This was much faster than my brother was able to talk. It took a couple of years working with a speech therapist 3 times a week, a special therapy playgroup 2 days a week, and then a special preschool 5 days a week, before he started to talk.
I could really relate to Helen’s excitement when she was at the well house and finally understood what language was: “a thrill of returning thought, and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me”. My family acted the same way when my brother started to make sounds and we could have conversations with him, although we were still reading his non-verbal skills to keep up the conversation. With constant repetition, both Helen Keller and my brother were able to overcome great obstacles and acquire literacy skills.
Helen Keller and my brother are similar in their life-long struggle to learn to communicate and the isolation each encountered. Both have had difficulties making connections with 'normal' people in part because, normal people find it difficult to put themselves in an autistic or blind and deaf person's shoes and see the world from their perspective.
There are a couple of issues that my family has encountered with my brother that I assume Helen had too. My brother does not use language to make social connections but as a tool to get information. ? In addition to having trouble understanding the thoughts and feelings of others, my brother is not very good at recognizing social cues. This is sometimes a problem as most people take it for granted when they are able to communicate in conversations.
Stuck on your essay?
