Y7 Son with SNs struggling with English

[FiveHoursSleep]

DS has ASD/ADHD/Dyspraxia and has just started Secondary school and we have received his first report.
It's all going quite well apart from English, where he is unable to write ( or type) a story or essay from scratch. He just has no idea how to start and any suggestions are met with t a meltdown.
Learning Support are going to help and it's unlikely he will start a second language next year like most students do, instead having the time for English Support.
I have two daughters with ASD who get on ok with English although they have struggled with the analytical parts of the curriculum, but their creative writing is pretty strong. DS just seems to have no clue although he managed to meet expectations for his SATs for writing and exceed them for reading.
Has anyone had any experience of this kind of issue in their 11 year old and were they able to get to the stage where they passed GCSE ENG ( Lit or Lang)?
Does anyone know of anything we could do at home to help?

We had this with DD1 who had dyspraxia.
Fortunately/unfortunately it was under the old GCSE systems and school (especially English) didn't realise how she was struggling until after y11 mocks. So you are running 4 years ahead, which is good.

When you say can't write a story or essay, is this just the creative questions, or is it also the factual comprehension / literature-based questions?

The creative / invent stuff we never really sorted. If you gave her an idea DD could run with it quite well, but stuck in an exam she was hopeless.

The factual stuff we ended up breaking down into steps and we did very intensive practice. Like Engl Lang by numbers.
So Q1 - this is what you are looking for. Underline all X in the text. Then annotate the underlined bits with Y. Then pick out the 3 post important. Write about them with PEE.

Creative stuff 'write about a time you were upset' - hopeless. I feel your pain.

Hopefully someone more helpful will be along in a bit.

(She did pass both English GCSEs, but greatly aided by the controlled assessments which no longer exist).

If they cant do on the spot creative writing I would think the best thing to do would be to have a set of 4 or so base stories. Depending on preference etc have 2 characters go to a fantasy / magic land have a happy/ sad / scary / fun experience and get sent home / escape / stuck forever. So thats 1 scenario with many different endings.

Probably scenario 2 set in school dealing with an issue like bullying. Maybe 3 could be a wilderness adventure, and 4 a superhero thing.

And then if in class they have to write a story they just pick from the 4 choices and choose the plot that most fits with what the teacher asked for and then try to change details, names, characters met along the way each time. Then it's just practise over and over so they have a few ideas how the characters get to and from the place/ wilderness or deal with the problems they find.

@TeenPlusTwenties It seems to be any writing although I do think we have time to train him to do the factual stuff the way you describe.
If he has something to say, he can write very eloquently and his reading skills are okay although comprehension can be touch and go.
As you say, it's good we know it's an issue now. Fingers crossed!

I think Damia has a good idea and it is worth exploring.

My son is in 4 th year at secondary school and he struggles with English. For creative writing We set characters And their descriptions all set out. As he doesn’t like reading we teach him a variety of words that the exam board says he should know. As for comprehension, we get him to read one line at a time with a wooden ruler so he can take it in. It’s good the school are recognising his struggles and starting early with support.

@Damia I thinks that's going to have to be the way to go. Hopefully we survive long enough to help him come up with the base stories.
It's like pulling toenails out!

My ds has asd and a genetic condition. He has 1:1 in English who acts as a note taker and scribe. He will also have a scribe for the exam (did for sats too) as it's his usual way of working.

This is because his verbal explanations are way above his ability when he has to also focus on writing (plus writing is illegible especially at speed!).

Along side this visual clue cards of sentence starters, connectives etc are very useful. It's worthwhile having a small book made up for reference.
One of the advantages of an autistic child with good IQ is that they tend to just learn and memorise the rules and start to do it naturally. My ds will pretty much write the same paragraph but change the words for different types of text now - and in year 11 they've finally predicted him actually passing his English Lang (with a 4)