I am curious onthegomom, why didn't you help him learn the more challenging vocabulary? Is this something that he was asking for in terms of a school change perhaps and not under your control?
Lack of school challenge is a issue that is being worked. But this was at home time example.
My DS9 has said to me if he says something to another child they will not understand that. He already adjusts his vocabulary to fit in with peers. That's not such a bad thing. He is already working on improving his vocabulary with reading above level books and a large volume of books. As soon as I made the suggestion to learn programming he jumped on it.
I have always felt he needed to learn alot. I have tried to expose him to lots of fun learning. It has recently occurred to me he could almost turn into a side show with all this fun learning. He can make over 50 different paper airplanes with out looking at a book for directions. You should see him do magic and card tricks. I have a long list...
