t what she wanted she would throw tantrums until her family gave in. Her favourite tricks were grabbing other people's food from their plates and throwing breakable things on the floor. Once she even managed to lock her mother into the pantry. Eventually her family knew that something had to be done. So just before her seventh birthday the family hired a private tutor. Anne Sullivan had a very sad life and she was poor. She had lost her own sight when she was five and had been thrown into the poor house when her family broke up. Finally she was lucky enough to get a place at the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston. She had the nickname 'Spitfire' because she was so rude and had such bad behaviour. But the director realised that if she could learn to behave she would be one of his most talented students. After several years, and two successful operations to restore her sight, she graduated with honours. The director knew that this was the person to tame Helen Keller. Anne soon realised why Helen threw tantrums. She knew that if she could teach her to communicate she would be a different person. But before she could teach this wild child, she had to control her. When she tried to get Helen to do something she didn't like Helen would scream and kick and bite. Anne eventually won these battles by will-power and not giving up. Anne decided to teach Helen the manual alphabet. This is a sign language where each letter is signed onto the hand of the deaf-blind person so they can feel it. Each letter has a separate sign. This means that words and sentences can be spelt. It also means that hard ideas can be expressed. Anne led Helen to the water-pump and pumped water onto her hand. At the same time she spelt out the individual letters, W A T E R. She did this again and again. Suddenly Helen realised that the individual signs stood for the letters that made up the word Water. In the same instant she also realise...
