HAIKU POETRY AS ONE OF THE MODES OF SPEECH AND LANGUAGE REHABILITATION IN A POPULATION OF CHILDREN WITH SPECIFIC LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES
 CASE  PRESENTATIONS
WHF2005 in Romania
Zrinka Simunovic, RO

 

CASE PRESENTATION 1

 

Anamarija came to our school five years ago from a regular public school; her main problem was bad communication. Withdrawn from group interaction, she was not progressing well in the learning process. After diagnosis in our diagnostic department, her test results suggested  that she had some slight language problems that interfered with her ability to deal with her feelings verbally. She was emotionally confused, sometimes depressed. In addition, she had some voice disorders not associated with language disorders; her voice trembled and the pitch and volume changed. But she had a great interest in reading, and always wanted to talk about what she had read. After working some time with her on improving her language, it was noticed that the basis of all Anamarija's problems was emotional instability. She lives in a Children's Home with her younger brother (her parents are alcoholics, incapable of taking care of them ).

Never before had she talked about her life outside of what she experienced at school. When she came to the literary group and began to write haiku, she divulged a few things about her family for the first time. Many of her poems have social themes, and it seems that only in haiku does she want to speak about her deep problems—the family situation (she has a meeting with her Mum only once a year, accompanied by social-worker). Two years ago, about Christmas time, she wrote this haiku:

Jesen pa Bozić,.........................Autumn then Christmas,
Valentinovo i Uskrs....................Valentine’s day and  Easter
do susreta s mamom..................till I meet my Mum.
 

She arrived in the Children’s Home when she was one year old. Social environment factors affected Anamarija's early development and caused her emotional trauma.

Medo bez uha—........................A bear without an ear—
jedina uspomena.......................the only memory
iz djetinjstva............................from my childhood
 

Her brother is very often in her haiku. She is worried about him; he is younger and she is very protective towards him. Often, Anamarija can be found looking for him in the garden where he is hiding after a fight with some other boys.

Na klupi, u sjeni vrbe...................Under the willow, on the bench,
tuzni djecak—moj brat.................a sad boy—my brother.
Jedini.......................................The only one.

Treperi mi glas—.........................My voice quivers—
netko je uvrijedio........................somebody has insulted
moga brata. Suze.......................my brother. Tears.
 

She has explained that she often talks to one girl from the Children’s Home, who is very optimistic, and already has plans for future. Anamarija enjoys her company.

Utjeha prijatelja:........................A friend’s consolation:
jednog dana cemo i mi................one day we too will have
imati svoj dom...........................a home of our own.
 

It is amazing  how very specific and determined she was, when she was writing these haiku. Anamarija is very aware of what she wants to say. This was the beginning of her need to write. I emphasize that only through haiku did she begin to talk about her family, her emotional problems, and her need to belong somewhere. She attended psychological treatments, but never opened up about herself, avoiding including herself in stories about everyday life in the Home. For this reason, Anamarija's haiku were a great help to our school psychologist to start from.

Almost every day, she gave me some piece of paper with “some observations”. Even in the school bus on the way to school, passing through the new part of town, she wrote about what she saw: the new, coloured buildings, and a small beggar...

Novi Zagreb—..........................New Zagreb—
razbacane lego kocke................scattered lego bricks
po parkovima...........................in the park

Na uglu..................................On the corner
ispruzenu djecju ruku................a child’s stretched out hand
nitko ne vidi............................nobody notices
 

After receiving the 1st prize at the Children’s Haiku Contest, she was thrilled, saying that her brother would be very proud of her. Her self-esteem is growing, and she is becoming aware of her own abilities. After a period of writing haiku about her family, she was strong enough to write an essay, “My Small, Precious Family” for which won a prize in a competition hosted by the Ministry of Welfare and Youth.

Anamarija says that at moments of emotional crises, when she is very sad, she reaches for her haiku notebook and reads and writes haiku; it relaxes her and drives away her bad thoughts. Reading and attempting to write haiku is the most creative therapy for her. She has found a way of dealing with her emotional crises. This is the great benefit of it all. Today, many aspects of her language functions are normal and she engages readily in conversation.

 

CASE PRESENTATION 2

Another school girl who won a prize for haiku is Sara. At thirteen year-old, her story is quite different from that of Anamarija's.

Sara's early speech development was normal, as was the early development of articulation, verbal short-term memory and lexical knowledge. Everything was normal until she reached three and a half years old. Suddenly, she got a high temperature. She stopped talking and began behaving like child that with hearing loss. She communicated with gestures, with eyes expression, and with drawings. She smelled things around her, and seemed as if she were without any need to talk. Her mother noticed that she no longer understood simple commands. After the procedure of medical testing, the diagnosis was serious: the Landau-Kleffner syndrome. Loss of speech, poor comprehension of speech, a syndrome associated with slight epileptic convulsions: the characteristic symptoms. Affecting children between three and nine years old, the causes are  various neurological changes in the speech center of the brain—a language processing disorder. However, these children have the ability to learn written language and sign language—everything unrelated to auditory perception. Usually, these children are also very good in drawing skills.

So, Sara’s language development was delayed; after learning to speak again (she had only a few words, and she called things “this” and “that”). Last autumn, after 9 years of rehabilitation, she started attending normal school!

Her speech comprehension is almost normal for everyday communication. Occasionally, she asks for explanation of some word, indicating her need for understanding. Her sentences are short, but contain complete information.

Sara started with haiku 3 years ago, at the same time as did Anamarija. Sara's haiku are quite different; she is a very good observer, noticing detail in everything, and she makes very specific associations. In the beginning, she was only reading haiku; it was an excellent pattern for her to practice correct grammatical structure. But her need to express her observations became Sara's motivation to try to write haiku. Some longer forms of expression weren't appropriate for her at that time. Simultaneously, she writes and draws, expressing every detail in her images.
 

Tisina—...........................................Silence—
ispit iz matematike.............................an math examination. Someone
netko vani bezbrizno zvizdi..................outside is whistling

Proljetno jutro—................................A spring morning—
brbljanje vrabaca putem.....................the chattering of sparrows on the way
od kuce do skole...............................from home to school

Na putu do skole...............................On the way to school
pupoljak, a na povratku......................a bud, and upon return
crveni cvijet!....................................a red flower!

Skolskim dvoristem............................Around the school yard
lete vrapci i kesteni...........................fly sparrows and chestnuts.
Netko place.....................................Someone weeps.

Nova skola.......................................A new school.
Novi pogledi.....................................New looks.
Novi mirisi........................................New smells.
 

For Sara and children that have similar problems with poor comprehension of speech and language expression problems, there are some steps necessary to understanding haiku. They are an excellent exercise for practicing language development:

  • reading haikus (from Anthology of Croatian Haiku, by V. McMaster);

many times, until they have memorized most of the poems, and recognize at the beginning the following words, this is a good practice for reading a poem with the correct rhythm and intonation

  • reading haiku lines with syllable segmentation, in order to correct the articulation of words and to practice syllable-segmentation skills;
     

  • talking about impressions after reading haiku; analyzing comprehension and explaining unknown words or expressions, if any;
     

  • reciting after reading the first two or three words of a haiku; this is a very good exercise for practicing the auditory and visual memory of spoken and written language;
     

  • trying to make a short story about a haiku in order to verbalize “the poetic image” in their own words (just a few simple sentences which should be grammatically correct);
     

  • answering “Which is your favourite haiku? Explain why?”
     

—this is the final stage, which includes a high level of language competence, and after that some children are able to begin writing their own haiku.
 

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