Annie first signs the word "water" to Helen, by spelling it out into her hand while flowing water over her hand.
The first word Anne Sullivan tried to teach Helen Keller was "doll," by spelling out the word in sign language into Helen's hand.
Yes she did, before Annie Sullivan came, she used her own rudimentary "home signs" to communicate to the household what she wanted. When Annie came, Annie struggled to teach her the concept of names for objects, and Annie was always finger spelling to Helen. Finger spelling is the sign language alphabet. Helen would copy Annie's fingers, but Helen didn't understand that the letters represented something. Helen's breakthrough was with the word WATER. Annie and Helen were at the water pump, and Annie spelled W-A-T-E-R into Helen's hand. It was then that a light bulb went off in Helen's head, and she understood. Helen then asked who Annie was, and Annie said Teacher. Annie would read books to Helen, spelling the words into Helen's hand until her hands were sore. Helen gave great speeches this way, spelling into Annie's hand who would say the words aloud.
H2o or water
Helen Keller's first sign language word was "water," which she learned to sign after connecting the sensation of water flowing over her hand to the fingerspelled word "water" that her teacher, Anne Sullivan, imprinted on her other hand.
Helen Keller said her first word at her family's home in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was with her teacher, Anne Sullivan, who taught her the sign language for the word "water" while Helen was feeling water flowing over her hand.
touch, through the use of sign language and actually touching objects, to create a correlation between the sign language word and the actual object and pooing on every thing
Annie believes that if she can teach Helen the concept behind one word, such as "water," it will open the door to Helen understanding that everything has a name and can be communicated. This foundational concept can then be applied to other words and lead to Helen's ability to communicate more effectively.
The first word that Helen Keller understood was "water." This breakthrough happened when her teacher, Anne Sullivan, used sign language to spell the word into her hand while running water over her other hand. Helen then made the connection between the word and the sensation of the water.
Anne Sullivan is very important to Helen because she helped her all through life. Dolls are important to her to because that was the first word she learned in sign language.
There was a sign for each letter in the alphabet. Someone would sign each letter one by one into her hand and she could feel what they looked like. Over time she learned them better and could understand them very fast. If you want to know how she understood that each word had a meaning its like this. Her teacher, Annie Sullivan would sign the word into Helen's hand. Following in that, she would let Helen feel and or smell the object, say, a cookie. Then she would sign it again and again. After a month of this and other words, Helen finally understood one afternoon at the pump while feeling the "water"
The first word that Helen associated spelling and meaning was "water".
The climax of "The Miracle Worker" in Act 1 is when Annie achieves a breakthrough in teaching Helen the concept of language by connecting the sensation of water with the word "water" through sign language at the water pump. This moment marks a turning point where Annie starts to break through Helen's isolation and begins to effectively communicate with her.