Helen Keller was born on 27 June 1880 in Alabama. Her father was a newspaper editor. She was a lively and healthy child with a friendly personality. She could walk and even say a few simple words. In 1882 she caught a fever that was so bad she almost died. When it was over she could no longer see or hear. Because she could not hear it was also very hard to speak. She was 18 months old when this happened. But Helen was not someone who gave up easily. Soon she began to explore the world by using her other senses. She followed her mother wherever she went, hanging onto her skirts. She touched and smelled everything she came across and felt other people's hands to see what they were doing. She copied their actions and could do some jobs herself, like milking the cows or kneading dough. She even learnt to recognise people by feeling their faces or their clothes. She could also tell where she was in the garden by the smell of the different plants and the feel of the ground under her feet. By the time she was seven she had invented over 60 different signs she could use to talk to her family. If she wanted bread for example she would pretend to cut a loaf and butter the slices. If she wanted ice cream she wrapped her arms around herself and pretended to shiver. At the age of five Helen began to realise she was different from other people. She noticed that her family did not use signs like she did but talked with their mouths. Sometimes she stood between two people and touched their lips. She could not understand what they said and she could not make any understandable sounds herself. She wanted to talk but no matter how she tried she could not make herself understood. This made her so angry that she used to throw herself around the room, kicking and screaming in frustration. The older she got the more frustrated she got and her rages got worse and worse. She became wild and hard to control. If she didn't ge...
