The Nature and Needs of Gifted Students

Case Study Assignment

April 17, 2015
Carol Charlton

CASE STUDY GIFTED AND TALENTED

Name: Josh Waitzkin
Grade: 2
Age: 7

Parents: Fred and Bonnie Waitzkin

Residence: New York, NY
Siblings: 1 younger sister

Background Information:
Josh Waitzkin is the oldest child of Fred, a sportswriter, and Bonnie, a homemaker. His
parents are married and the family, including one younger sister, live in New York. Josh
attended public school, but was transferred to the Dalton School in 2nd grade.
Josh became curious about chess and observed it intensely in Union Square Park. His
interest grew and he discovered he learned the game so quickly that he was able to beat
others who had been playing for much longer in tournaments. In a short time, he was
winning the championship trophies for every tournament he entered.
In support of his interest, Joshs parents engaged a private chess teacher for Josh, Bruce
Pandolfini. The results have been mixed. Josh continues to learn quickly and win
tournaments and definitely increased his level of play and competitiveness. Pandolfini
formerly tutored the #1 ranked player in the world. Based on his previous success, he
coached Josh to have a similar win at all costs, killer instinct. Although extremely
competitive, Josh did not really fit that mold and it caused a problem when Pandolfini
became frustrated and turned one of Joshs incentives (earning what he thought was a
rare Chess Master Certificate) into a meaningless piece of paper, because Josh would not
comply with his requests to get aggressive. His parents disapproved and temporarily cut
off Joshs association with Pandolfini. This began a period where Josh lost his love for
the game.
Josh has developed and maintained other interests, including playing on a baseball team,
where he demonstrates high skills and performance.
Characteristics:
Josh exhibits well-documented gifted traits such as extreme curiosity, an excellent
memory and a long attention span. His problem solving, reasoning and abstract
conceptualization are clearly observed as he plays chess. He is quickly able to plot out

several moves in advance, anticipate his opponents moves and respond rapidly to new
information and relationships in the game. Josh has also demonstrated that he is gifted
socially and emotionally. His heightened sense of empathy was observed when he
offered his opponent in an important match a draw when he knew he was about to win.
This showed that Josh understood how much the match meant to his opponent and how
badly he would feel if he lost. Offering a draw was an enlightened action that is rare in
adults, let alone, children.

Challenges:
In many ways, Josh is a typical 7-year old. However, one of the challenges is to
remember that his experience and development do not match his mental age and he still
needs to be treated as a child. Teachers, parents and other adults may think that Josh is
capable of making his own decisions or being more responsible and those expectations
can put excess pressure on Josh.
Joshs public school teacher was concerned about Josh missing so much school for his
chess activities. It is important for the teacher, school and parents to take a holistic
approach and have some shared goals for Joshs development. It seems the disconnect
between Joshs teacher and Mr. Waitzkin resulted in transferring Josh to a new school.
Like most 7-year olds, Josh wants the approval of his teachers, parents, and friends. His
parents are struggling to help Josh maintain his self-esteem and self-worth separate from
winning at chess. Like all parents, they hate to see their children experience the agony
of defeat, but they also know their son needs to learn how to experience and recover
from failure. They want Josh to enjoy the experience of playing chess and attending
tournaments, win or lose.
Josh will need to continue to experience and recover from failure. In addition to being
sensitive and empathetic, Josh can be very self-critical and impatient with himself and
others.
Recommendations:
Josh has excellent support at home. He his fortunate to have a school and family
situation that should nurture his curiosity and interests and also provide the balance that
will help Josh to navigate the real world.
Those who interact with Josh should be reminded to treat him as the 7-year old he is. If
not already in place, The Dalton School team and/or other professionals should evaluate
Josh and develop a plan in collaboration with his parents to address his academic, social,
emotional, and physical needs.

Josh should be encouraged to continue to interact with children his own age and practice
patience with them and himself. Due to his tendency to be self-critical, adults in his life
should watch for signs of depression, withdrawal and excessive stress.