Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Writers block, could there be more going on?

My DS15 who is a freshman in H.S. gets very stuck when it comes to writing. He CAN write quite brilliantly when he has something to say. His first drafts are better than mine. He gets mentally blocked and nothing I can think of doing will get him to even put one word on the paper. He over analyses everything to do with the essay/project, and makes the projects 100% harder than it the one assigned. And he wants to have the entire essay in his mind before he puts one word to paper.

This came to a head again last night, on a one page analysis of a poem for English. I couldn't convince him the teacher really didn't want a unique interpretation, that he wasn't writing a masters thesis on it. It is a bit of a perfection issue, if it doesn't feel like his voice he won't write it. When he was in 6th grade he had major problems with this issue that I mostly dealt with by backing off a bit. He was in very intense honors program and was having anxiety problems at the time. By last year his 8th grade teacher thought he was an excellent writer and didn't even hesitate to recommend him for the honors classes. But this year he is struggling in both English & Social Students because of his inability to quickly write to a prompt. This is something he HAS to be able to do to function in H.S. level English, and for things such as a the writing prompt on the SAT/ACT.

I have decided to send him to a 3 week writing camp/class this summer that I had been dithering about. But I'm not sure how much this will help except give him more practice. The question is could there be a LD or something else deeper going on? I had two different psychologists in the past who said he didn't fit an aspergers diagnosis. I am considering having the Educational Therapist who worked with my DD19 who had language processing issues evaluate him just because I know her. I'm just not sure she is the right specialist.

I am getting so frustrated. Next year he will have to be in regular CP English & Social Studies because his writing is not up to par. He was dropped to this English class over semester break because of the writing problems, and now he is totally bored in most of the class while getting 100% on everything but his writing. I don't know how to help him. My friends think I just need to make him WANT it enough. But this starts to feel like when my daughter didn't crawl by 12 months, and there was nothing I could do to get her moving. Working with a physical therapist helped immensely and it felts so good to have the right tools to help.

Any suggestions, resources, who would be best to try and help my son with this situation. I guess I need to go in and talk with his counselor about this in hopes that she can influence his teacher choice for next year.