Hasn't been officially diagnosed as autistic. He interacts with people normally (at least, what I would call normally.) She's mentioned that he might be slightly dyslexic. Talked to a 1st/2nd-grade teacher friend of mine, and she seems to think (from an in-depth car-ride discussion with me and my gf, but never having met him) that the "standard" way of teaching that his school is using might not be the way that his brain wants to learn.

But, yes. "Difficult" is a very accurate description.

I recently put together a new computer for her/them, and also got 'em a Pre-school/1st grade learning game. She says he's doing very well with that. I hope it continues, and he's able to retain and transfer that to his own writing.