DS12 had an assignment to do for his English class that was creative, fun, and ultimately very short. There was a very long set of instructions and it is being graded on including all of the components.
He "worked" on it for literal hours. I was checking in on him here and there--mostly he was just checked out, making little progress, until I finally insisted he allow me to help. I walked him through the directions and typed for him--we were finished in about 15 minutes.
He did not seem to understand the directions and his work prior to my help was far below ability level--looked like something a much younger child would produce. The directions *were* hard to read because it was all in a small and elaborate font, but that doesn't seem to account for the overall performance.
A big part of this, I think, was that I'd allowed him the laptop willy-nilly and he was probably multi-tasking and not engaged. But there seems to be more going on, generally, when he has to respond to writing assignments. They are often immature, brief, incomplete (he doesn't fulfill requirements). Once I sat down with him (against his will--he does not ask for or want help), it was fun and complete in a few minutes.
Meanwhile--he is writing a screenplay on his own and does not seem to have any writer's block there.
Does this sound like:
--Executive function (specifically task initiation, sustained attention)? There's no mystery around this issue, he certainly has deficits.
--Something more discrete, language oriented?
--Motor?
I'm still trying to figure out all of my "concerns" to put in letter requesting ed eval. When I received DS' records last week, I noticed that my concerns were summed up as: "Mother wants child tested because he is unhappy in school." No wonder I've been unsuccessful.
What should I ask for, specifically, in terms of evaluation? Any all help appreciated.
