After Helen's breakthrough in understanding the meaning of words, she moved ahead with amazing speed. Within three weeks, she had learned more than 100 words. Anne taught her as one would teach a young child. "I shall assume that she has the normal child's capacity of assimilation and imitation. I shall use complete sentences in talking to her." Anne took all she had learned at Perkins about teaching a deaf-blind child and adapted her knowledge to produce a more natural way of teaching. Many of Helen's lessons were outdoors. Anne realized that this deaf-blind child could learn much using her three remaining senses of touch, smell, and taste:

It is wonderful how words generate ideas! Every new word Helen learns seems to carry with it the necessity for many more. Her mind grows through its ceaseless activity.

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