By following the placement of subject, verb, object, and adjectival phrase in a specific order, students learned to construct sentences which were easily understood in their language.

She worked in Oak Park, Illinois in 1937,[5] where the National Fraternal Society for the Deaf was located.

[8] That same year, she spoke at the Biennial Meeting of the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf and completed a study course at Columbia University.

[10] Because the "Fitzgerald Key" gave additional visual support to those who had not heard language construction,[11] it allowed students to correct their own grammar and syntax mistakes.

[12] At one time, her system was so widely used that three-quarters of the schools in the United States teaching those with hearing difficulties used it.