Part 2: Case Studies

Analyze each case study presented in the Blooming Park simulation as if you were the counselor assigned to work with the student. Include the following information:

• Summarize the student, including demographics and developmental information.
• Assess the available information/data and identify the presenting concern(s).
• Propose at least one delivery system service that would be appropriate for the case.

GWEN KATZ

Gwen Katz, 10, is a fifth-grade student at Max Aasen Elementary School.

Gwen comes from a middle class background and is Jewish; she is an only child who
lives with parents. Gwen has attended the school since second grade, when her
family moved from another state.

She is identified as gifted and participates in the school’s gifted program for both math and language arts. Gwen has always been
shy, but she has always had friends, especially among the other “smart girls.” This
year, though, she is struggling quite a bit socially.

Former friends have shunned her, and she has been bullied by two of her classmates. Her parents have had
several conferences with the school to discuss the bullying. Gwen has become
withdrawn, and her once-stellar grades have suffered.

Morgan Walter
Fifth Grade Teacher

I’ve seen this kind of situation before. Fifth grade girls can be very mean.

Puberty is coming earlier for a lot of girls, and it’s a rough age.

Unfortunately , I have an unusually mean group this year. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a bright girl like Gwen become a target. I’ve tried to help out
as much as I can.

There are two girls in the class that have been bullying her -calling her names,
taunting her, making fun of her clothes- and one of the girls put a threatening letter in her locker.
That girl was suspended for three days, and the other girl has been disciplined as well.

But there’s only so much the teacher can do when it comes to exclusion, which in my mind is a
vicious kind of bullying, too.

The girls who she used to be friends with have been excluding her.
She got all As the first semester, and she’s not doing nearly as well now. She used to participate
in class discussions all the time, but not anymore. I feel at a loss on how to best help her.

Patrice Sandoval
Gifted and Talented Teacher

I’ve worked with Gwen for the past four years. She’s such a delightful kid! Very smart, creative,
funny.

And she’s so deflated right now. She almost seems like a different kid than the cheerful.
fun girl I’ve gotten to know.

She’s not putting nearly as much effort into her work as she did in the
past. I’m sure the social dynamic is part of what’s bothering her.

There’s a group of girls in the gifted classes that are… well, there’s no sugarcoating it.

They’re a clique, and an exclusionary one. Gwen was always kind of on the outskirts of the clique-not a member of the central group,
but they always talked to her in class and invited her to birthday parties, and stuff like that.

Now, it looks like to me that they are out of their way to avoid her.

I tried to intervene and had a conversation with the girl who’s the ringleader of the group, and I’m pretty sure I just made things
worse.

It’s really a shame because for gifted kids like Gwen, friendships with the other gifted kids
can be a real lifeline at this age. But in this case, the smart girls are the mean girls.
Dan Katz
Parent

I don’t know what to do to help my daughter. She’s so moody.

She spends lots of time in her room watching YouTube videos and playing with the cat.

She doesn’t want to hang around with me and my wife anymore -which I quess is normal -but she doesn’t hang around with other kids much
either.

I guess she’s never had a ton of friends, but we did used to have girls over at our house,
and there’s none of that right now.

And we can’t get her to talk to us about what’s going on. We
didn’t even know she was being bullied until Mr. Morgan called us in for a conference.

She used to be so open with us. And on top of that, she’s been skipping homework assignments and not
doing all that well in school. which is completelv not like her.

Now I’m wondering if we made a
mistake keeping Gwen at this school. A couple of years ago, we applied to get her into program in
another district for gifted kids, and she got in.

But the school would have been an hour commute
from our house each wav, and the district wasn’t as good overall as Blooming Park.

So we
decided to keep her here, and as you can see, that’s not going well.