Aspie POV needed!

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Just keep practicing. He seems very intelligent, he'll get it eventually.

Read him plenty of fiction for reference, too. Fictitious stories tend to use a lot of adjectives.

I think you did good, but you are proving a point. An entire paragraph is needed, full of generalizations, and I'm sure if I wanted to I could find some counter-examples. Which brings me to the point: What is the purpose of the question?

I think your son realizes something that you don't (even at age six). Specifics are needed in order to describe. I am not trying to be argumentative but there aren't short simple answers to your question and it is really hard for someone so young. In general you should be detailed, and explicit if you want simple answers. The inverse is also true.

Consider the following:
1. Describe the the color the tree in your yard? Answer: a word or two
2. Describe the tree in your yard? Answer: a descriptive parargraph
3. Describe a tree? Answer: well, you could probably write an entire book on trees and still not be comprehensive enough.

Very nicely articulated, I was trying to articulate something along those lines using a car as an example - how we judge what information is pertinent to the questioner. If you're asked to describe a specific vehicle, your answers would be very different if the questioner was: a policeman, a potential buyer, or a friend asking in casual conversation. Because the context is different and from it we can judge that each of these people is looking for a different set of information about the car. But I gave up because, ah, language, you know.

I just went with saying the question lacked specific context and therefore he couldn't accurately judge what information was sought - and speculated on why he might have said "It looks like it can have apples in it". I'm thinking he thought about it and decided to present something a viewer might find interesting on observing a tree. Tasty, sweet fruits would be interesting. But he didn't know what sort of tree, and they're not all apple trees, so he went with it can have apples in it rather than it has apples in it.

Of course we could be wrong - it would depend on whether he can describe things when he does know what information is being sought. But to me, the way he phrased his answer strongly suggests the problem lies in not being able to judge what information is expected - which is understandable, given the question lacks a plausible context.

If true, though, I'm thinking at his age, things like "shape" might even be too vague - I would list the parts (anchored by roots under the ground, a long trunk which divides into branches terminating in leaves) and then add an analogy to help (like a bush on a pole). But I've had much more practice at judging contexts and knowing what the listener is already familiar with than he has.

After carefully re-reading this thread (doesn't everyone re-read their threads), I realized that question is worse than just "Describe a tree"

but literally,
"describe a tree, make believe I have never seen a tree in my life, tell me what it looks like!"

in other words "Describe a tree, even though I have no reference for what a tree might be, if one exists"
This poor kid doesn't have a chance!

I wonder what the OP thinks about all this.

Next question for her kid: "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?"
Follow-up question: "If a sound is made, describe it, assuming I've never heard a tree fall?"

I've had enough language mind-bending for today.

lol, I think some of this is funny thanks for the comic relief

I think the example I used got away with itself. Basically, my son cannot describe ANYTHING. I just used a bad example. If I ask him to tell me about anything, he draws a blank.
In conversation, he can say "I is so hot outside today!" or," I saw a HUGE rabbit at the museum!" But when asking him the question, "Describe...." or "tell me what X is like" he gets shut down.

The ohter question I had, is that he has no idea what an adjective word is in a sentence. I try to explain that it is the descriptive word, or the word that gives us more info about the noun, but he is baffled and has no clue. Again, I feel adjective is just too open ended. A verb is simple, it is an action word. A noun is a person, place or thing. Adjective describes a noun. Well, if you dont understnad "describe" then you have no idea what an adjective is!

I have learned a few things thru this trhead though. I will have to be more concrete on what "describe" means when I am asking him to describe something to me. Lets go back to my happy little tree! If I ask him to tell me about a tree, I wil ask him to describe it, tell me what size, color and shape it is. Actually, the question in his workbook was to describe somehting in your yard (thats why I picked tree...lol).

thanks again