I guess what worries me is that an essentially bright boy is going to end up failing academically, because his strengths lies in his verbal ability, rather than being able to express his knowledge on paper.
I do however think that his disabilities are starting to hinder his strengths and am desperate to help him make the best of the skills/strengths he has to support his weaknesses. Unfortunately, the education system in the UK has no place for children who are primarily verbally skilled and this could lead to him leaving school with very little evidence of his skills.
I've been reading and watching a lot of YouTubes by Temple Grandin, and she is also very concerned that a lot of bright spectrum kids are in educational environments that don't bring out the best in them. Have you found her thinking to be useful?
On one hand you note
In general he tends to find schoolwork too easy, not at all challenging and often pretty boring as a result.
but on the other hand
We are worried though, as we are starting to see him stall in mathematics. He's always been pretty much a natural...he doesn't even know how to start explaining how he arrived at his conclusion. ...We are also seeing a slide in literacy, as he is expected to have more understanding of different perspectives and emotional aspects of literature.
So if schoolwork is too easy, I would advocate for harder work. If it's too hard, I would encourage you to tutor him (or find a different person to tutor him.) In Math, in particular, there are really only 5 stock answers that they are looking for that you can train him to parrot back to them if he is eager to please.
1) I used placed a group of 3 buttons next to a group of 10 buttons and counted the whole group to make 10 buttons, so I know that 3 +10 equals 13.
2) I used a number line, starting with my eraser over the 3, and walked 10 paces, and found that my eraser was over the 13, so I knew that 3+10=13.
3) I used a math fact table to see the intersection of 3 and 10 is 13.
I forget the rest, but they aren't looking for creativity, just a formula of words that lets them know that the child understands. Even if the child is just parroting. It's a bad system, but we are stuck with it.
I would also keep working with him outside of school on the problem solving - really following his interests.
Love and More Love,
Grinity
