The Miracle Worker Paper

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The objective of this paper is to critique the movie, The Miracle Worker (1962). The Miracle Worker (1962) is a story of how one person can enter the lives of others and change them forever. It is a story with a combination of humor and seriousness, often with a touching emotional effect. This story shows the strength and power of human determination, and the ability to overcome the most devastating disabilities. I will discuss how the movie relates to material covered in Human Development EPS 580. I will report observations pertaining to the research and theories of the character roles. This movie was directed by Arthur Penn and is about a girl named Helen Adams Keller played by Patty Duke. She was born June 27, 1880 on a plantation called …show more content…

She took on a combination of the parenting role approach of an authoritarian and authoritative parent in order to get through to Helen, and to be able to teach her (Berger, 2014 p. 287). In just a few days, Annie taught Helen to spell the word doll with her hands by implementing the classical conditioning and social learning theory. It was here where the learning process began through association and modeling of what others do (Berger, 2014 p. 44). This was attained by using the manual alphabet, which is part of the sign language that deaf people use (Perkins School For The Blind, …show more content…

She refuses to accept that there is no hope for her. Annie Sullivan believes that the reason Helen has no way of communication or, discipline is the result of the way her parents brought her up and how they allowed her to behave, they were permissive parents (Berger, 2014 p. 287).
As Helen Keller’s understanding of the language developed, Sullivan begins to use a more stern approach that focuses more on the way she behaves rather than the ability to communicate. She begins to use the behavioral approach theory which focuses on identifying and changing behaviors (Nuekrug, 2002 p 38). Annie insisted and got permission from Mr. Keller to isolate Helen from the rest of the family for two weeks. They went to live in the garden house that is located on the property away from the family’s

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