What sort of a child was helen in her early childhood before her illness?Describe the illness that hit helen when she was 19 months old . How did it affect the little helen.

She lived only a little more than a year of life before the illness came that made her blind and deaf, and it was so terrible that the doctors believed she would die. She was stricken so young the she does not remember the world before it went dark, but she thinks fondly of the way her teacher came to bring her world back to life again.

Helen was a precocious child ,quick and eager to learn.She keenly observed people and learned to imitate them She was walking by the age of one.She took great delight in everything around her. Suddenly she was struck by a great illness which the doctors diagnosed as Scarlet Fever or meningitis and they didn't expect her to survive. To her parents delight she survived but no one realized that it had left her blind and deaf. It was a nightmare for her. Her world had suddenly become dark and she became imprisoned in a world of her own