Trevor’s Tidbits
Trevor Learns about Helen Keller
Martha Summa-Chadwick
Summary: Trevor Chaplin, a fifth-grader who has recently been diagnosed with autism, is the protagonist of a new book titled Trevor the Noteable G.O.A.T. Written from Trevor’s point of view, the piece connects history with his own experience of seeing the world a little differently.
A young Helen Keller sits with her teacher, Annie Sullivan
Hi, everyone!
It’s me, Trevor Chaplin. It’s Sunday afternoon, and I’ve been up in my room working on my computer, learning some things about an incredible woman named Helen Keller. My dad always likes to watch football over the weekends, so it’s not a good time for me to do any piano practicing in the living room. He likes to have things quiet while he’s watching tv. But I had a great piano lesson with Mrs. Hopkins yesterday, and I can’t wait to start practicing tomorrow morning at my normal 6:00 am time. I asked Mrs. Hopkins if I could start working on Für Elise, that’s the piece I first heard my friend Tasha play a little while ago. Mrs. Hopkins said that a lot of it is still too hard for me to play, but that I could work on the first part. Then she told me a little bit about Mr. Beethoven, the man who wrote the music. He was not only an incredible musician, but he also wrote a lot of his greatest music when he was totally deaf!
“But Mrs. Hopkins, how could he write music when he’s deaf? How could he hear what to write?” She smiled and told me he’d already written so much music that he could hear it inside his head. “Trevor, there are ways to hear music using other parts of your body too. Did you know that Helen Keller, who was also deaf, could listen to Beethoven? She even wrote a lovely letter to some musicians about how much she was affected by their performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony!” Hmmmm…Helen Keller? “I’m not quite sure who she is, Mrs. Hopkins. I remember hearing something about her in school, but I don’t know much about her.” Mrs. Hopkins smiled. “Well, Trevor, you should do some research on her while you’re practicing the new Beethoven piece.”
So, here I am on my computer, learning everything I can about Helen Keller. There’s a ton of information about her online, and it looks like she was awesome! She became both blind and deaf after she got sick before she was even 2 years old. Can you imagine what that must have been like for her? I recently found out that I’m diagnosed as “on the spectrum,” so I totally understand what it’s like to be lonely and for people to not understand me. But she had to deal with so much more. How awful that must have been to not be able to see or hear. She got really lucky, though, because she had an amazing teacher named Anne Sullivan who walked her through the darkness to a point where she could learn by using her other senses. First, Miss Sullivan taught Helen how to spell with her fingers. The first word she tried to teach her was “doll,” but Helen didn’t understand the spelling stuff for a while. They both got pretty stressed trying to get her to figure it out. But there was a breakthrough a few weeks later, when Miss Sullivan took Helen out to the water pump. She ran water all over her hands and spelled out the word “water.” Helen totally got it then! And boy, did she take off with learning after that!
After Helen learned to spell, Miss Sullivan taught her how to understand speech by having Helen touch Miss Sullivan’s mouth and lips while she was talking. The two were inseparable until Miss Sullivan passed away in 1936. What a teacher she was! It made such a huge difference in Helen’s life having a remarkable teacher who really cared about her student. I wonder what would have happened to Helen if they’d never met? Hmmmmm...let me look some more…
…Oh look, this is so cool! Helen must have really liked the way music made her body feel, just like I do. I just found a picture on another website, showing how she wrote some words to a song called “Uncle Sam is Calling.” And look, there’s another picture here of her leaning onto a piano with both hands on it, so she could pick up the vibration through her hands and body. I wonder where that letter is that Mrs. Hopkins mentioned, where Helen described “listening” to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony? OK, here it is! It looks like she wrote it in 1924 to the New York Symphony Orchestra after someone suggested that she put her hand on the big radio that was playing the music, so she could “hear” the music through her hand. She did, and she could feel the throbbing pulse of the rhythm and the sensation that different instruments and voices created through her hand. She sure had a way with words. I felt a little tear in my eye when she was talking about Mr. Beethoven. Here’s the heartfelt way she ended the letter:
“As I listened, with darkness and melody, shadow and sound filling all the room, I could not help remembering that the great composer who poured forth such a flood of sweetness into the world was deaf like myself. I marveled at the power of his quenchless spirit by which out of his pain he wrought such joy for others – and there I sat, feeling with my hand the magnificent symphony which broke like a sea upon the silent shores of his soul and mine.”
Man, she’s amazing. I wonder what else I can find out about her...OK, here we go, I just found another website that tells how much Helen loved dogs. This adds frosting to the cake, as my Mom would say, I sure do like people who like dogs! Helen had sixteen of them during her life. Wow, that’s a lot of wonderful dogs! I don’t think she ever had a basset hound like Sig, but it’s really awesome that she liked them so much.
You know what? I’m glad Mrs. Hopkins asked me to find out about Helen Keller. This kind of puts things into perspective for me. She and Mr. Beethoven both had a lot of challenges in their lives, but they managed to rise above them and leave unforgettable legacies. I’m going to be thinking about all of this when I practice the piano tomorrow morning. Well, Mom just hollered to tell me it’s time for dinner, so I’m going to go downstairs to eat. I hope everyone liked finding out about Helen Keller as much as I did.
Your friend,
Trevor
About the Author
Martha Summa-Chadwick, DMA, has a professional background as both a concert pianist and former IT specialist. Her intimate knowledge of music and autism, gained through years of teaching children on the spectrum, is evident throughout Trevor’s story. Dr. Summa-Chadwick is not only the author of the book, but also its illustrator, composer of original music for the story, and designer and creator of the Trevor website.
Trevor the Noteable G.O.A.T. was named HELEN Journal’s 2026 Book of the Year.