Page 276 - The Story of My Lif

VOCABULARY. I sent Helen away and sat down to think. I asked myself,

“How does a normal child learn language?” The answer was simple, “By
imitation.” The child comes into the world with the ability to learn, and he learns
of himself, provided he is supplied with sufficient outward stimulus. He sees
people do things, and he tries to do them. He hears others speak, and he tried to
speak. BUT LONG BEFORE HE UTTERS HIS FIRST WORD, HE

UNDERSTANDS WHAT IS SAID TO HIM. I have been observing Helen’s
little cousin lately. She is about fifteen months old, and already understands a
great deal. In response to questions she points out prettily her nose, mouth, eye,
chin, cheek, ear. If I say, “Where is baby’s other ear?” she points it out correctly.
If I hand her a flower, and say, “Give it to mamma,” she takes it to her mother. If
I say, “Where is the little rogue?” she hides behind her mother’s chair, or covers
her face with her hands and peeps out at me with an expression of genuine
roguishness. She obeys many commands like these: “Come,” “Kiss,” “Go to
papa,”

“Shut the door,” “Give me the biscuit.” But I have not heard her try to say any of
these words, although they have been repeated hundreds of times in her hearing,
and it is perfectly evident that she understands them. These observations have
given me a clue to the method to be followed in teaching Helen language.I
SHALL TALK INTO HER HAND AS WE TALK INTO THE BABY’S EARS.
I shall assume that she has the normal child’s capacity of assimilation and
imitation. I SHALL USE COMPLETE SENTENCES IN TALKING TO HER,
and fill out the meaning with gestures and her descriptive signs when necessity

requires it; but I shall not try to keep her mind fixed on any one thing. I shall do
all I can to interest and stimulate it, and wait for results.

April 24, 1887.

The new scheme works splendidly. Helen knows the meaning of more than a
hundred words now, and learns new ones daily without the slightest suspicion
that she is performing a most difficult feat.

She learns because she can’t help it, just as the bird learns to fly. But don’t
imagine that she “talks fluently.” Like her baby cousin, she expresses whole