Indigo's given you good advice above, and I don't really have anything to add, other than re the writing/output challenges.
He will explain why the uncertainty principle precludes reaching absolute zero easily and excitedly, but panic and refuse to write down "uncertainty principle." Because he is "bad at writing."
Even though a child may have an understanding of a concept such as the uncertainty principle, it doesn't mean they're going to be able to write about it - understanding, speaking, and writing all call on many different types of abilities. Indigo asked if he had a dysgraphia diagnosis. I'll also mention Developmental Coordination Disorder. My 2e ds has a DCD diagnosis, and fine motor dysgraphia that is associated with it; when he was in early elementary school (prior to diagnosis) he would refuse to do any written work, scream, throw fits, stomp, tear up his papers and throw them across the room. This made no sense at all to my dh and I as it was clear (to us) from his advanced verbal and thinking abilities that he should (from our perspective) be able to easily do the work that he was being assigned in class. In reality, the act of handwriting was really really really beyond tough and frustrating for him, hence the tantrums.
I mentioned DCD in part because it has many overlapping symptoms with ASD and ADHD. Our neuropsych had a venn diagram of the three (DCD, ASD, ADHD) showing the common challenges shared by each. With a child that was most likely diagnosed at a young age (I'm just guessing based on remembering your posts from a few years ago - I think it was a few yearsago?) - I wonder if he's had an updated eval, and if he hasn't, would an updated neuropsych be worth considering, now that the work he's being required to do in school is more complicated, and also now that he's older and may be able to help give feedback himself to a neuropsych. On the other hand, I'm also guessing it's quite possible he's had thorough evaluations and updates of those evals through his school, and if you're satisfied with those, then there isn't a need for more.
Whether or not your ds has a dysgraphia diagnosis, if he's fighting using handwriting, it's worth at least trying scribing and/or keyboarding to see if his written output improves with either. You can try each at home, whether or not his school is agreeable to trying them. We had to advocate like crazy for a number of years to get our ds appropriate accommodations at school, and one of the things that was actually helpful (in addition to his professional and school eval documentation) were some simple examples that I put together working with him at home - giving him a similar assignment but having him use handwriting on one, keyboarding or scribing on another, time both, and also compare quantity of words and quality of output etc. When we had IEP/etc meetings and the school tried to say"everything's fine" I could show those examples. The school might not want to accept them since they didn't administer them, but I could turn it around on the school by requesting that they administer a similar exercise and show that the result was different - and that was all it usually took (just the suggestion) to have the school acknowledge that output was slow, scribing helped etc.
Aside from an updated neuropsych eval, I'm also wondering if your ds has ever had a speech language eval (by an SLP)? Our ds was first diagnosed with DCD/dysgraphia when he was 8, but after we'd put accommodations in place for his dysgraphia his written output didn't improve by leaps and bounds as expected. Instead, as he grew just a bit older, going into 4th grade, he began to verbally tell us and we began to realize that he was having the same issues with output when speaking that he did when trying to write. It wasn't something that was obvious - he was highly verbal and could explain complicated thoughts with a huge vocabulary from the time he started talking - but when he was talking in such a way, he was explaining factual information that he understood. What he was challenged with were open-ended questions, and that was what a lot of the writing assignments in school were starting with as prompts.
What would you recommend I read/contact regarding helping him overcome the anxiety with output tasks.
The thing that helped our ds overcome his anxiety with writing and output tasks was understanding what was causing the issues with writing and output - his anxiety was secondary to and caused by those challenges, and once we were able to accommodate the challenges and begin remediating what we could, his anxiety disappeared. It still reappears sometimes, when he's tasked with work that takes a lot of effort because of his challenges, but it's nowhere near the level that it was before he was diagnosed with dysgraphia and expressive language disorder. If your ds already has these diagnoses, or a diagnosis that explains the issues with writing etc - then I'd recommend sharing what you know about the diagnosis, how it impacts students, what you can do to remediate, be up front if you're having to advocate at school and it's not always going well (he'll see that anyway whether or not you mention it). You don't have to tell him everything, but share enough that he knows it's not *him* that's the "problem" and also let him see that you're advocating for him - knowing that you believe in him and are standing up for him will make a huge difference in his life
I am inclined to establish a zero requirement for a while (all output to be scribed for him, etc, for at least a few weeks, before re-introducing ANY expectation that he write.
The first thing I'd do is consider - how toxic is his classroom situation at the moment? Is he so stressed out he just needs a total vacation from school for a week or two? Will he be able to return when he's less stressed, and will his teachers work with you to accommodate him re writing etc? If they are willing, rather than saying all output is scribed, start with asking them to do some simple evaluations themselves - nothing huge, just scribe one assignment and compare it to a similar assignment where he's used handwriting. Have them observe when he's struggling vs when things seem to go well in the classroom - these are things they are probably already doing - but keep you in the loop for a few weeks, pay really close attention yourself for cues to what's up.
You can also let him try keyboarding - don't try to have him learn how to touch-type, just let him figure out his own method of hunt-and-peck.
Best wishes,
polarbear
