Helen would have to learn to understand words spelled on her hand. Anne's technique was simple and straightforward(直接的). She would put an object into one of Helen's hands and spell the word into her other hand. She started with dolls. She would let Helen play with the doll, and then spell the letters "D­O­L­L" into her hand. Helen thought this was a game. She had a precise(准确的) description of her excitement in her book, The Story of My Life: "Running downstairs to my mother, I held up my hand and made the letters for doll. I did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words existed; I was simply making my fingers go in monkey­like imitation(模仿)．"

　　Then one day, Anne took Helen out to the well. Anne put Helen's hand under the water. As the water flowed over one hand④， Anne spelled "w­a­t­e­r" into the other hand. Then suddenly, Helen had a burst of understanding; the movement of the fingers meant the cool water flowing over her hand. This precious(宝贵的) knowledge gave her hope and joy. Finally, the world of words was opening up to her.

　　Now that(由于) Helen understood the key to language⑤， she was very eager(渴望的) to learn more and use it as much as she could. Children who can see and hear learn language easily but for Helen, it was a gradual(逐渐的) and sometimes painful process. However, the results were amazing.

　　海伦将要学会理解拼写在她手里的单词，安妮的方法很简单直接。她将一件物品放在海伦一只手里，然后在她另一只手里拼写单词。安妮用玩具娃娃开始。她让海伦玩娃娃，然后在她的手里拼写字母"D­O­L­L"。海伦以为这是个游戏。她在她的书《我的生活故事》中准确地描述了自己的兴奋。"我冲下楼跑向妈妈，举起手，拼写玩具娃娃的字母。我不知道自己在拼写一个单词，更不知道单词的存在；我只是简单地像猴子般地模仿着移动手指。"

　　后来有一天，安妮带海伦出来到了水井边。安妮将海伦的手放在水的下方。当水流过一只手时，安妮在另一只手里拼写"w­a­t­e­r"一词。一瞬间，海伦突然明白了：手指的运动表示正在流过她的手的清凉的水。这一宝贵知识给了她希望和欢乐。终于，词语世界向她敞开了。

既然海伦理解了语言之谜，她非常渴望学习更多的词语并且尽可能多使用它们。能看和听的孩子学语言很容易，但是对海伦来说，这是一个渐进的，有时是痛苦的过程。然而，结果是令人惊叹的。