My dc has no imagination

[sherbertlemondrops]

We are really struggling with our dc communicating well and also things like writing or telling a story.
Dc is 7 and if you ask for example
How was your day
They always say 'good how was yours'
But like a robot churning out a line they've learnt.

If you try to coax more information such as did you do anything particularly nice today they'll continue and say, 'yes' but nothing more. You have to ask continual chain of questions to get even a small piece of information out of them.

Now that we're online schooling it's becoming more of an issue, the teacher is giving up trying to coax anything out of them and dc is left to sit with their one word answer while other dc are praised for their nice longer answers.

On top of this they are currently doing a story writing project and my dc will write about four lines and think this is a good story. Something like, the horse ran through the grass. They liked it, the end
If you ask them to describe something for example a banana they will say it is yellow. Even when you ask, anything else? They'll sometimes infuriatingly even shorten their answer to simply 'yellow'

They then receive a low mark and I am linking the zero imagination in their writing to their poor communication skill.
Is there something wrong here? Can I improve this situation. Of course I'll say to dc afterwards maybe embellish the one word answers, however it's the same thing every morning. 'yes how are you ' blunt stare.
Anything I can do? Any ideas.

Thanks @Sausagessizzling for the reassurance I will try this too

I have a 9 year old who sounds very similar
He couldn’t read fiction because he couldn’t imagine the characters. He is very literal so books/stories etc made little sense to him. He needs thinks broken down and explained which can be exhausting.

What I do is break it down. I discussed with my older son (a year between them) what he imagines when he hears a story or what he’s thinking of when asked to write a story then thought about how I’d feel if I couldn’t imagine and it made me quite sad as I loved to read and go into my own world as a child - dyslexic so being able to read was a huge thing whilst being bullied.

So we did some guided meditation via YouTube some for kids and and relaxation type exercises and I also made up my own based on some other stories we’d read then got him to join in adding his own thoughts. I kept it close to his interests (he reads loads of non fiction loves animals and dinosaurs) so it’s relevant to him, he was probably 6 or 7 when we started too. Kept it short and used it for wind down for bed too.

We aren’t quite there yet but he’s got a much better understanding and ability to write a story, he uses a computer at school also and is being assessed for asd so lots of other quirks with him too. He’s an excellent reader so I really wanted him to enjoy fiction and non fiction. He used to wake up in the night and not be able to settle himself again so now reads a few pages of a book - fiction to settle back to sleep.
I hope some of the suggestions people give you help with your son

It hasn't been a major issue for me, OP. I have a great memory so can regurgitate things if needed, though it did make French and English literature tricky later on in school. As an adult, I do sometimes find that while I can be very sympathetic towards others, I do find it difficult to see their POV as I cannot imagine other people's responses being different from mine, so have to be mindful of that.

Hi Sherbert, Did my dm get thru?

I would get a speech and language assessment. It is the most common SEN yet the one least known and often misdiagnosed as dyslexia. His expressive language is restricted - if he was dyslexic or dyspraxic on its own he'd be verbally ok but not able to do it written. The rote replies are a little echoliac. Find a SALT and get some therapy now because inferential skills are the basis of so much higher order thinking.

I would get a Speech Language Therapy Assessment and possibly educational psychology. Likely they need a bit more help.