Another thought from the perspective of a family tackling EF and what’s worked for us. Can you help him pre-formulate a structure to his essays and help him storyboard? I think of this as a skill to be learned, not an innate deficit. Then break each discrete piece into a standalone task.
If it’s creative writing, I ask my DS how a paragraph starts and ends. What idea or imagery is he advancing in that space? What information does the reader already have? Does he want to confirm or disconfirm that? Does he want to introduce an element of surprise or humour? Can he imagine, visualize, act out, or talk it through? I find helping concretize the content helps DS regulate his attention better and focus on what he’s delivering. The more the content can feel like a tangible amalgam, the less he’ll feel like he’s parsing and collating 100 disparate items.
For non-fiction writing, I often give him an audio recorder to dictate into. The disconnect between verbal output and written output is significant. This strategy allows him to separate the acts of delivering substantive content, and transcribing and enacting proper writing mechanics. That discovery was a powerful one for us. It’s doable in school, too, if he has a quiet space to work and a headset, and can reliably whisper.
