First came learning how to fingerspell with Sullivan. Helen learned this by placing her hand and fingers lightly on her teach- er’s hand and feeling Sullivan “speak” using sign language. In this way, Helen could feel and then mimic finger movements for simple nouns such as pin and hat , and simple verbs like sit and walk . But Helen did not know she was spelling words or even that words existed. As she put it, she was “simply making my fingers go in monkey-like fashion.” All of this changed the day the mystery of language was revealed to Helen. “ Thus, the optimist believes, attempts, achieves. He stands always in the sunlight.” — Helen Keller
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