eco, you've received excellent advice already - I just have a few things to add:
I think your ds has had a neurospcyh or educational eval, hasn't he? If so, it might help to revisit the report from that eval and maybe even talk to the psych who gave the eval, letting him/her know where he's at now and what type of challenges he's facing. It's just so very easy to look at one thing that's happening with a child, compare it with things you've researched and read about, see similiarities, and think, hey, that's it... when there's a chance it might be all of it, part of it, or something else entirely. It's important to remember that the WISC subtests are impacted by challenges but don't necessarily define what those challenges are - processing speed and coding in particular can be impacted be many, many different abilities.
For instance - I'll throw out my ds as an example - and he's only an example and he might not relate at all to your ds' experience, but fwiw: his relatively low PSI index is primarily due to coding - he scores fairly high on symbol search. His depressed coding score isn't due to initiation at all - it's due to a fine motor challenge. Symbol search also requires fine motor to answer the task, but it's a much less complicated, thought-required fine motor skill, so it's easier for him to accomplish quickly.
One of the things his fine motor challenge impacted a lot when he was in elementary was timed math facts. Once he was past those in math class it wasn't obvious at all that their was a fine motor issue (impacting math)... until he hit upper grades where he has timed standardized testing - and he does run out of time on those without extended time - you can tell he's running out of time because he leaves questions at the end of the test unanswered (plus he can tell us). He doesn't have that issue in the classroom - he's bright and capable enough that he's able to easily answer the questions in the same amount of time that teachers typically give the test so that kids who have to think about the problems have enough time to answer all the problems. And in the twisted world of early teen-hood, that's been enough for ds to honestly think he doesn't need extended time... until he takes a standardized timed test that's normed on a wide population sample and specifically meant to separate out by ability rather than allow everyone a chance to answer each question. I only mention this because... if your ds doesn't have an extended time accommodation, and he's had difficulty finishing math tests in the given amount of time in the past (or other types of tests involving handwriting), you might want to be certain there isn't a component of fine motor impacting his writing so that he receives the appropriate accommodations now, rather than having to scramble and prove he needs them later on.
My ds also has a challenge with written expression. It can really *look* like an initiation challenge, and it appears really uneven. When he writes, he writes really well. It could appear that he's writing when he is engaged because he's interested in a topic, but if you look deeper the issue is more with the type of writing - is he having to make inferences, is the topic open-ended, etc. You mentioned that you're able to get your ds to write once he's made a personal connection. This sounds somewhat reminiscent of what writing is like for my ds - it happens with a lot of support in the form of prompting/work at initiation etc. I don't know if it would benefit your ds at all, but speech therapy focused on writing was *tremendously* helpful for my ds. And a lot of support from me at home with strategies his SLP suggested.
For myself, and for many of my ds' teachers, it's not easy to differentiate from things my ds finds "pointless" simply because he would naturally feel that way about them, and things that he finds "pointless" because they are difficult. The tricky thing about that is - the things a child is finding "pointless" because they are difficult are things that probably need some type of targeted/strategized/specific type of support, or at least would benefit from it - but when we see the behavior as resistance just because a child doesn't want to do it, we don't know to deliver (or how to deliver) the help that's needed. As 2e kids get older two things happen - one, the hopeless or pointless feelings they have about certain types of assignments start feeling like that to them, whereas when they are younger and just starting out in school they are more aware of the task being something they feel like they can't do. Sometimes tweens and teens don't want to admit to themselves that they "can't" and it morphs into "don't want" to do it. The other thing that happens concurrently is that academic demands increase at school - so writing assignments become longer, more complicated etc.
So - it might be all cause/effect with the writing, but I'd wonder if maybe there's an underlying *something* going on that's impacting it too. That's all together why I'd suggest a touch-base appointment (just for you) with his neuropsych (or developmental ped or whoever) to run through what you're seeing now, and see if the psych/whoever has any thoughts re what might be up. If you didn't have a private eval, I'd consider asking the school to look into the initiation question.
As I mentioned above, I didn't meant to suggest that anything that's going on with my ds is in any way related to whatever is going on with your ds.. and I'm not a professional, only a parent. I just wanted to point out how difficult it can be to see what's really up, and also point out how it can be extremely important to really try to understand what's up. Hope that makes sense! And... it's not something any of us 2e parents figure out overnight either.... I'm still learning more and more about my ds' challenges as the years go by.
Best wishes,
polarbear
