suppose her idea was "Baby eats much." She pointed to each puppy,
one after another, and to her five fingers, and I taught her the
word FIVE. Then she held up one finger and said "baby." I knew
she was thinking of Mildred, and I spelled, "One baby and five
puppies." After she had played with them a little while, the
thought occurred to her that the puppies must have special names,
like people, and she asked for the name of each pup. I told her
to ask her father, and she said, "No--mother." She evidently
thought mothers were more likely to know about babies of all
sorts. She noticed that one of the puppies was much smaller than
the others, and she spelled "small," making the sign at the same
time, and I said "very small." She evidently understood that VERY
was the name of the new thing that had come into her head; for
all the way back to the house she used the word VERY correctly.
One stone was "small," another was "very small." When she touched
her little sister, she said: "Baby--small. Puppy- very small."
Soon after, she began to vary her steps from large to small, and
little mincing steps were "very small." She is going through the
house now, applying the new words to all kinds of objects.

Since I have abandoned the idea of regular lessons, I find that
Helen learns much faster. I am convinced that the time spent by
the teacher in digging out of the child what she has put into
him, for the sake of satisfying herself that it has taken root,
is so much time thrown away. IT'S MUCH BETTER, I THINK, TO ASSUME
THAT THE CHILD IS DOING HIS PART, AND THAT THE SEED YOU HAVE SOWN
WILL BEAR FRUIT IN DUE TIME. It's only fair to the child, anyhow,
and it saves you much unnecessary trouble.