Annie helped Helen to learn how to communicate with other people. She taught her the names of things by writing the words on Helen’s hand. At first Helen didn't understand the meaning of the words. The first word Helen understood was "water". She learned this word when Annie put Helen's hand under some water and wrote W,A,T,E,R on her hand. Then she learnt the words and sentences with this method. In 1890, Helen’s family sent her to the Perkins Institute to learn how to speak and communicate. When she was nineteen years old, Helen went to Radcliffe College in Massachusetts. She graduated from Radcliffe in 1904. She was the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.