Who was Helen Keller? (Famous Americans Series)

Listen to this podcast and learn about famous American, Helen Keller with the Check this out! Podcast4kids.  

Helen Keller overcame incredible struggles to find her voice and empower others. She become a college graduate, author, educator, activist, and trailblazer.  Listen with us to learn more about Helen Keller and her amazing accomplishments.  

Helen Keller is the first in our series of 10 Famous Americans. 

Audience: Elementary age kids 5-12

#helenkeller #historyforkids #podcastforkids #famousamericans

Transcript

Welcome to our very first episode of “Check this out!” a fun and inquisitive podcast series for kids where we talk about interesting people, places, and ponderings that shape the world around us.   

“Check this out” is inspired by conversations I have with my 6 year old daughter when we are learning new things.  When we are reading a book or doing a science experiment we often tell each other to “Check this out!” it is how we know we are about to learn something cool or have our mind blown by an amazing fact.  

“Check this out” is a podcast that is all about exploring! We have so many interesting topics we can’t wait to share with you in future episodes.  Everything from amazing animals, to inventions that changed the world.  But we are starting with Famous Americans.  In our first 10 episodes we will introduce you to some amazing historical and modern americans who made a real impact on the world around them.  

This week’s episode is going to introduce you to a famous american who overcame incredible struggles to find her voice (more on that later). This woman become a college graduate, author, educator, activist, and trailblazer.  I’ll give you a clue.  This woman lost her ability to see and hear at a young age.  She had a special teacher who taught her to communicate even though she was both deaf and blind (which means she coudn’t hear or see)  Any ideas who it was? 

You’re right! Hellen Keller.  Now lets “Check this out” and learn some more about this amazing woman.  

Now be sure to pay attention because at the end of every episode, I’m going to share three facts that you can check out yourself if you want to learn more! This is your chance to be a detective and identify the most interesting facts about Helen Keller that you might want to check out further on your own! (Or with the help of a grownup) Now lets “Check this out!” 

Hellen Keller was born in Alabama on June 27th in the year 1880.  Anyone have any idea how many years ago that was?  

Today it is 2025 so that was 145 years ago!  

The world was a very different place when Helen Keller was born.  In 1880 the Panama Canal was just starting to be built, the first cash register was patented in 1880, electricity wasn’t broadly available in 1880, and things like medicine and science weren’t nearly as advanced as what we have today. 

Helen Keller was born a healthy baby, to her loving parents Kate Keller and Colonel Arthur Keller. When Helen was 19 months (that is a little over a year and a half old) she became really sick.  At the time doctors thought she had scarlet fever.  This sickness caused her to lose her ability to see.  If someone is unable see there is a name for that.  Do you know what it is called?  

That’s right, blind!  

In fact, Helen was so sick that she not only lost her ability to see and became blind, she also lost her ability to hear, which is called being deaf.  So before she was 2 years old Helen went from being able to see and hear the world around her to being in total darkness and silence.  That must have been really scary! 

Today there are a lot of medical advances to help people who are blind and deaf, such as hearing aides, eye surgery, and technical tools to help people that are deaf or blind or both. But in the 1880s those resources weren’t available yet. 

Being deaf and blind meant Helen struggled to communicate in the same way as her parents, family, and the people around her. This caused her to be frustrated a lot and her whole family was exhausted!  Her parents knew they needed help, so they found a teacher for Helen from the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston.   

This teacher’s name was Anne Sullivan.  Anne Sullivan came to work with Helen at her parents home in 1887, when Helen was 7 years old.  Helen often shared when she was an adult that the day her life changed was on March 3, 1887 when Ms Sullivan came to be her teacher.  

Anne Sullivan was only 20 years old when she came to teach Helen!  She worked with Helen to communicate with her hands and learn sign language, since she couldn’t see or hear.  

Check this out!  Did you know there was a special reason that helped Anne Sullvan be so effective at working with Helen?  

Was it because she…. 

1. Was also deaf? 
2. Also suffered from serious vision problems making it hard for her to see? 
3. Had been a teacher for a long time? 

If you said B, you were correct! Helen‘s teacher Anne Sullivan also struggled with vision impairment throughout her life, and by the time she died, she was fully blind. It must have been nice for Helen to have someone who could understand a piece of what she was going through. 

Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller did AMAZING things together!  The first word Anne Sullivan signed to Helen was the word D O L L.  But because Helen hadn’t been able to see or hear for several years she couldn’t quite understand the connection of the letters Ms Sullivan was spelling into her hand and the word doll. Over several weeks Ms Sullivan and Helen worked together with Ms Sullivan signing letters and words into Helen’s hand. 

Naturally as Ms Sullivan introduced Helen to more letters and words Helen got frustrated because she was having a hard time connecting the words and letters to the things in the world around her. 

Listeners i want you to think about when you get frustrated? Especially when you were younger. What did you do? 

Hopefully you talk to a grownup about how you’re feeling and explain why you’re frustrated. But Helen couldn’t do that because she hadn’t learned sign language yet. And being deaf and blind meant she couldn’t speak to share why she was frustrated.  As a result Helen had some BIG tantrums as she began working with Ms Sullivan. In fact Helen’s tantrums are famous and widely mentioned in most biographies and stories of her life.  

During one of Helen’s tantrums Anne Sullivan took Helen outside and put her hand under a water pump and spelled W A T E R into her hand in sign language. Helen felt the water splashing over her hand while Ms Sullivan signed water into her palm in sign language over and over. This is when the pieces started to click for Helen! Helen finally understood the thing she was feeling had a name and it could be spelled with sign language. They continued and soon Helen knew lots of words in sign language to describe and understand the world around her. 

The work that Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller did together in her childhood was so amazing that a play was written about it called “The miracle worker” and it even became a movie!  The play won a special prize called the Pulitzer Prize.  

Do you know what the Pulitzer Prize is?  The Pulitzer prize recognizes outstanding achievements in American journalism, letters, and music.  People were so moved by the play and Helen’s story it won such an impressive award!  

In addition to working with Anne Sullivan at her home, Helen attended school at the Perkins institution learning how to read by running her finger over raised dots.  This is called Braille.  Helen was able to use Braille to not just read words and letters, but whole books!  

After spending years with Anne Sullivan and at school learning sign language and braille she met another teacher who helped her to do something many people thought she’d never do… Speak!  

Check this out! 

Why is it hard for people who are deaf to speak? 

People who are deaf or have a hard time hearing don’t know how words sound because they don’t have the opportunity to hear and mimic language and vocabulary throughout their lives.  Most babies copy the sounds they hear around them, people like Helen who are deaf don’t have the same opportunities to do that!  

Helen’s teacher who helped her learn to speak was named Sarah Fuller. Ms fuller worked with a School for the Deaf.  Sarah Fuller helped Helen learn how to speak by placing Helen’s fingers on her lips and throat while she talked.  This helped Helen understand the shapes and vibrations the mouth and tongue needed to make.  At the same time, while helen was feeling the mouth and tongue words were signed for her so she knew which sounds went with which signs.  It was a LOT of work to learn to speak, but Helen worked hard and learned more words every day.   

In 1900, when Helen was 20 years old, she did something that most people never thought she’d be able to do.  She got into college and graduated in 1904. She was the first person who was deaf and blind to graduate from college!  

Helen wrote 6 books in her life, with the first of these books being published while she was in college.  Helen Keller hosted lectures and toured around the world talking about blindness and deafness.  

As an adult Helen continued to achieve incredible things, not just overcoming her blindness and deafness to read, write, speak, and learn.  She was also an activist and educator!  Helen cofounded the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920, something that still exists today!   

Later in her life Helen created a fund that raised money for the American Foundation for the blind.  She used her celebrity status to advocate for deaf and blind people across the world.  

Helen Keller is an example of not letting limits define you.  She worked hard, and had a system of support around her to help her achieve wonderful things and leave a legacy on the world.  

Now listeners, let’s recap the 3 facts you can check out further after the podcast is over!  

1. The first word Helen understood via sign language was WATER, which her teacher Anne Suillvan taught her at a water pump.  
2. Helen Keller was the first person who was deaf and blind to graduate from college!  
3. Helen Keller co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920 

At “Check this out” not only do we love learning, but we love rhyming.  So to wrap up our conversation about Helen Keller lets leave you with a little poem.  Come find us for our next episode on another Famous American…. For now, check this out!  

Helen faced silence, darkness, and dread,

With Anne Sullivan guiding, Helen’s knowledge was fed.

She learned words and letters, such as “Doll” and “Water,”

A college grad, an advocate, a trailblazer, and fighter.

From silence and darkness, a voice found its way,

With teachers and friends, brightening each day.

From struggles arose a beacon so grand,

Helen Keller's spirit forever will stand.  

Here at the “check this out” podcast we also know there is a lot of information out there in the world! This podcast can also be a tool for you to help you do something called “citing your sources”. As you get older and do projects for school you’ll learn that certain types of websites or information sources aren’t verified. On “check it out” we use verified sources to build the stories you hear about. Our sources for this weeks episode are Encylopedia Británica, American Foundation for the Blind. 

Thank you for learning and exploring with us on Check this out! Make sure to subscribe so you’re the first to hear new episodes.  

Sources: 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Helen-Keller 

https://www.afb.org/about-afb/history/helen-keller/biography-and-chronology/biography