Pretty much the same way anyone learns to speak. Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama to Kate and Arthur Keller. Helen Keller’s father was named Arthur H. Keller. When she was 19 months old, she got sick she became ill and had a high fever. How Helen Keller Learned to Communicate. Helen Keller was an author, lecturer, and crusader for the handicapped. She was blind and deaf and as a result she was not able to speak clearly in her whole life. Keller devoted her energies to humanitarian pursuits, advocating for economic justice and the rights of women and of people with disabilities. He supported his family and made his living by working as the editor for The North Alabamian, but before taking this career he served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.In fact, Keller’s paternal grandfather, … The story of Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, was made famous by Keller's autobiography, The Story of My Life, and its adaptations for film and stage, The Miracle Worker. Helen could hear and see when she was born. To know how she learned the abstract concepts like 'love', let her speak for herself. After patiently gaining Helen's trust, Sullivan began Helen's education using techniques practiced decades earlier by Samuel Gridley Howe, the first director of the Boston-area school. Sullivan, a valedictorian at Perkins, was dispatched to Helen's Alabama home by the school's director, Michael Anagnos. She attended several schools for the deaf and for the blind, all the time working with Anne Sullivan. Helen Keller was no ordinary girl. Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. Helen studied at Perkins from 1888 to 1892. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. It was Anne Sullivan who not only taught her to read and write but also shaped her character and life. Except that it took more work for her, since she couldn’t actually hear. Helen Keller began her schooling aged seven. The story of Helen Keller, Perkins School for the Blind's most famous deafblind student.