To begin we will refer to the term deaf-blindness:
"A deaf-blind person is considered when he presents a visual and hearing impairment, such that the combination of both deficits causes communication problems that make it difficult to inform and understand what is happening around him".
For these people, the fact of communicating with others is something they are totally unaware of, not only because they cannot communicate verbally with all that that entails, but the absence of it brings with it other types of behavioral and psychological disorders [...] That lead the person to lock himself in his own world by moving away and reacting reluctantly to human contact and even sometimes, reacting aggressively with all those who try to get close.. That is why, in many cases, the fact of being deaf-blind brings with it the disintegration of society and contributes to the promotion of social isolation of the person.
On the other hand, it is vitally important that the treatment offered to people with these characteristics is not based at any time on pity and compassion, since these feelings are the last thing that a human being should transmit, no matter how tragic it may be. whatever your situation. It is obvious that every human being has their difficulties or limitations, but surely, there are many strong points that their personality encloses, that is why it is very important to find them, regardless of whether the communication that is established is verbal or gestural.
All the knowledge that the projection has provided us will be very useful to complete and contrast all the information known through other means, such as the documentation of the Basic Guidelines and Alternative Communication Systems module and subsequent conference with a deaf person- blind.
On the other hand, it will be of crucial importance in everything related to the role of the Technician in Social Integration, being very useful to know all the ways, instruments and aids that can be used with deaf-blind people and thus avoid isolation from the society in which they live.
Anne Sullivan's miracle clearly shows the difficult daily life of a girl who became deaf-blind as a result of an illness she suffered when she was just a few months old, and which, brought with it the loss of vision and hearing, which would undoubtedly greatly hinder the communication of the little girl throughout her life, both with the environment and environment that surrounds her, as well as when communicating with all those people who wish.
This situation is considerably aggravated, especially due to the overprotective and permissive behavior that her parents have followed when carrying out the difficult but not impossible task of educating a person with certain limitations such as those of the little girl. As well as on the other hand, falling into the serious error of being guided by a feeling of pity and compassion that, far from doing the girl good, will be one of the biggest obstacles that would greatly hinder her learning, subjecting the little girl to a life without color, gray and off.
But this situation changes when a teacher tries to educate the little girl fundamentally guided by the enormous feeling of guilt for the death of her brother; which will give her enough strength to carry out an unparalleled mission without a doubt, despite the fact that when she arrives at the house where the little girl lives she finds that Hellen is considered a disgrace of nature and for the which there is no type of solution, therefore it is impossible to communicate with it.
It can be said that the mother is the only one who harbors little hope that her daughter may one day experience some kind of progress. For her part, the adolescent lives in her world, away from everything, ignoring everything that surrounds her. TOnne Sullivan will be the main responsible for a miracle involving the life of Hellen Keller as well as the people who are close to her.
As real data, it is worth mentioning that Hellen Keller went to the girls' school in 1896 and in 1900 she managed to enter Radcliffe University, being the first deaf-blind person who had overcome the difficult challenge of entering the University leaving the margin your limitations. During her time at the University, Hellen began to write about her life, using a normal machine using Braille writing. Thus, with the help of Juan Albert Macy and Anne Sullivan, Hellen Keller published her first book " THE STORY OF MY LIFE". In the following years, Hellen, accompanied by her governess and friend Anne Sullivan, held several lectures recounting all their experiences and experiences.
After achieving several successes which he could never have imagined, Hellen died in 1968, at the age of 87, but just before he died, Hellen told a friend:
"In these dark and silent years, God has been using my life for a purpose that I do not know, but one day I will understand and then I will be satisfied".
In the present work and more specifically in this section, special emphasis will be placed on the characteristics presented by the two people who appear in the cinematographic projection. "The Miracle of Anne Sullivan".
On the one hand, the protagonist of this story Helen Keller and on the other, the person who took care of her learning and accompanied her throughout her life, her governess and friend Anne Sullivan..
As for Hellen, she is a girl of about 11 years of age, who due to a disease, which doctors at that time diagnosed with the name of brain fever and is now known by the name of meningitis or scarlet fever, caused in the little girl a "definitive" blindness and deafness, which for a long time prevented her from being able to lead a life of her own and characteristic of any human being, since her relatives considered her as a hopeless case that had to be given a solution as soon as possible; This solution lay in sending the little girl to a center for the mentally handicapped, despite the fact that Hellen's mother knew that this was not the case with her daughter, since she was aware that she would have been an intelligent child if she had not been for the damage caused by the disease.
Hellen's behavior at the beginning of the film is similar to that of a wild "little animal" that is guided by smell and touch to be able to move around its own house, often hitting the furniture or simply stumbling and falling to get up later. and start over. However, it can be seen that he had enough intelligence to know that his growls and tantrums were his most subtle tool, to get everything he wanted and that as a result of the exaggerated protection he received from his family, he always achieved. However, little by little with the help of his governess he manages to internalize the alphabet that she had taught him and finally and after many years of complete silence, he manages to communicate with his parents.
As for Anne Sullivan, the person in charge of Hellen's learning, she was only 20 years old when she took charge of the little girl's case, Anna Sullivan had a visual impairment caused by a disease called "trachoma", which seriously affected her vision and had her undergo numerous operations, the last one shortly before taking over the Keller case..
That is why, during the cinematographic projection, you can see that you need dark glasses to protect your eyes from any type of light since it is especially uncomfortable. The vision problems that Anne Sullivan presented made her understand the little girl very well, so it would be much easier to establish communication with her, taking advantage of all those resources that she once used.
Since Hellen deficiency was caused by a disease that appeared during the first months of life, it is included under the definition of speriloocutive level postnatal mildew, which means that no sound traces remain in the brain, in such a way that it has not been possible to acquire language naturally and spontaneously.
For all these reasons, the deafness that Hellen Keller appreciates is considered an acquired deafness.
At the beginning of the film you can clearly see how the little girl tries to communicate with all those people she knows because they have been with her all her life, but who has never been able to see or hear, but has only been able to feel, that is why the Lack of communication and wanting to do it and not finding a way, provokes in Hellen aggressive behaviors, often a consequence of not knowing why they treat her like this, in the event that she is scolded by shaking her, or with more abrupt movements than she may be used to , since she ignores any damage that she may have caused, this can be seen in the scene of the film where the little girl rips the buttons off her aunt's shirt, just with the mere objective that her doll has eyes, a fact that causes in her a great satisfaction.
As a deaf-blind person that she is, she cannot find a way to communicate to the people who are with her, what she feels and wants at all times; That is why, repeatedly, a great feeling of frustration and helplessness arises in her due to the lack of communication.
But Hellen's situation improves little by little when Anne Sullivan comes into her life, who begins to teach her an alphabet that will undoubtedly open many doors until now totally unknown to the girl. manual or fingerprint alphabet, with which Anne begins to teach the girl very simple words that, although at first they are totally meaningless to her, she repeats over and over again when Anne makes a movement with the palm of her hand, or with short movements of the head in the case of having to agree or deny, this is how her teacher tries to make the little girl realize that she has done wrong by leading her hand to a totally serious and angry face, accentuating the features to a great extent, so that the little girl finds it more easy to perceive them, the same happens in the case of wanting to show a face of happiness or satisfaction for that, the features of the face will be more relaxed and always having a pronounced smile that the little one could notice.
It is through this alphabet that the girl learns to communicate and little by little she learns to give meaning to the words and with it to relate each sign that she perceives in the palm of her hand with the object, person, animal or thing that it represents..
At the end of the play you can see how Hellen no longer needs those tantrums from the beginning to communicate, because now she knows how to use a better tool. His own hands.
Hellen Keller's life has always passed next to her family, a bourgeois family, who lived on the outskirts, in a rural area and which was made up of parents and a brother only on the father's side, all of them since they The little girl was diagnosed with deaf-blindness.They considered that Hellen did not have any type of solution, so they did not make any special effort to give any child of the same age their own education, regardless of whether they present some type of deficiency or not. That is why the little girl had grown up always doing what she wanted, using the tantrums of any child to get what she wanted..
For his part, the girl's father, the captain, considered that his daughter's situation could not continue like this and that they should opt for a solution as soon as possible, and perhaps the most successful solution would be to intern the little girl in a center for the handicapped mentally, because otherwise there was nothing else that could be done, the little girl's brother considered her as a "monkey" that repeated all the movements that others did but that did not represent anything for her. He was totally reluctant to the fact that the girl could understand the meaning of the words one day.
On the other hand, children of the same age refused to play with her, because they were afraid that she would attack them in one of those tantrums that they often gave her..
For her part, the mother of the little girl was the only one who showed minimal hope that her daughter could have a slight progress, for this she consulted with many specialists and none of them gave her a solution, until one day, the family doctor recommended to Anne Sullivan, the lady without thinking twice sent for her with the purpose of improving her daughter's situation, since she was confident that if it had not been for that illness she suffered 11 years ago, her daughter would have been able to to be a very intelligent girl capable of achieving everything that she would have set out to do. Proof of this is the scene of the film in the word "water", a fact that if age is taken into account really draws attention.
However, with the presence of Anne Sullivan in the house of the Kellers whose mission was to take charge of Hellen's apprenticeship, despite being under pressure imposed by the captain, within two weeks as he had been ordered, he managed to do From an almost impossible situation a true miracle, she got Hellen to understand the meaning of the words, and that brought enormous happiness for the Keller family, as well as a different perception about the little girl on the part of all the people around her.
In this way, Anne freed Hellen from living the same situation that she had experienced and that marked her life forever..
From the beginning of the film it has been possible to observe how, for her relatives, Hellen Keller was a poor unhappy person unable to understand and communicate with others. So much so, that her own father came to think that the most suitable solution to guarantee her well-being and improve her quality of life is to place her in a center for the mentally handicapped..
The girl's brother thinks that all he does is repeat the actions of others but without understanding anything he does at all times. This has been observed very well in the scene of the film, where once Anne Sullivan has arrived at the Kellers' house and is showing the girl the fingerprint alphabet, the young man tells her that it has no merit, that often repeats everything that is done, but in itself, it means absolutely nothing.
The mother of the little girl is the only one who believes that intelligence is present in her daughter, and that if she found a way to communicate, everything would be very different from how it is now.
But in general, all of them had many doubts about Hellen having a life as normalized as possible..
For her part, her governess Anne Sullivan was the only one who, from the first moment she saw Hellen, knew that in that little head there was a whole world of illusions and new things to learn, and that maybe her brother was right. in something, indeed "she was a little monkey, but very intelligent".
Anne trusted from the first moment that if she had time to be able to interact with the little girl, teach her the alphabet and with her understand the meaning of words, an improvement would soon be appreciated in the little girl.
This task was not easy at all, because on many occasions the governess and student had very strong arguments, and the little girl sometimes attacked her, slapping, pinching or even shaking her with her wrist one of the times she tried to teach her to behave.
But none of this mattered much to Miss Anne Sullivan; she had come to that house with a purpose; to help Hellen Keller discover a whole new world for her through his hands. Well, I knew very well that he was by no means a person with a mental deficiency, but on the contrary, one day he would stand out for his great intelligence.
At the beginning of the film, little Hellen lacked the sufficient communication necessary for any human being, that is why the girl tried to communicate through tantrums that were not only used as tools to achieve everything she wanted at the moment. the one who wanted it, but that on several occasions, they were the only way he found to make his family understand that he was not well or that he wanted or needed something.
When Anne Sullivan came into the child's life, she realized that regardless of the fact that she was a deaf-blind person with many limitations, it was not a sufficient justification for neglecting the child's education, a fact that the parents had not taken into account in those 11 years, since in them, only the feeling of pity and compassion for his daughter was present.
But for her part, Anne Sullivan, little by little, was in charge of giving Hellen the education that anyone who lives in society should have. At first, it was difficult, perhaps too much; since the girl came to take a kind of loophole and did not even want him to touch her. But this did not represent any impediment for her governess who little by little was finding the necessary strategies to carry out her purpose. Among which stands out, having separated the girl from the family bosom with the aim that little by little she would need her, and with that to go closer to the final goal.
It is worth mentioning that the strategies used by the teacher to teach Hellen are closely related to alternative communication systems, since what greatly facilitated the girl's learning was the repeated use of the fingerprint or manual alphabet, with the who learned to communicate with others. But on the other hand, there were many more strategies that Anne used to carry out her task. Among them are the following:
- Affective and sensory-perception stimulation: In the film, you can see how the governess seeks contact with her student at all times, trying to make her want to know and to know everything that she is willing to teach her..
- Association / conditioning: Making her understand through rewards when she did something well. The reward that appears the most in the movie is a kiss or offering a piece of cake, since cake is usually one of the greatest rewards that can be given to a child. And on the contrary, when she did something wrong, it forced her to perceive the roughness in the movements of her hands, as well as denying her what the little girl would have wanted at all times, at the same time that it prevented her from obtaining it until she did not ask for it in a way. adequate.
- Game as a pedagogical tool: Anne Sullivan uses the game to make the girl understand language through her hands as well as to learn to relate each sign to the object it designated. This can be seen in the film when Anne takes Hellen for a walk through the countryside taking advantage of the river, to teach her the word water and to recognize through touch what it really represents.
- Imitation: Through imitation, Anne tried to get Hellen to recognize the words, although they had no meaning for her to begin with, but she was sure that little by little, and once the form was internalized, it would be much easier to achieve understanding..
On the other hand, and this already based on real events, Anne Sullivan taught her pupil to use the Braille writing method, which continued to open many more doors for Hellen. In addition, she also learned to write through a normal typewriter, which made it possible for Hellen to write the first of many more books that she would write in the future..
WEBGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY.
- Synopsis (actual data), description of the character with a disability, as regards Anne Sullivan.
- Viewing of the movie: The Miracle of Anne Sullivan
- Documentation of Basic Guidelines and Alternative Communication Systems (deaf-blind). Belonging to the Higher Degree of Social Integration.
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