He can draw, so why can't he write?

This is the question that I got from R.'s principal today. Not in so many words, but it was there underneath the surface of our conversation about her watching him draw this intricate picture of cyborgs and transformers battling the humans. In the moment, I had no answer for her. She and I have a history (thankfully, most of the bad stuff happened long ago), so I always have my guard up around her. After I left her, I thought of possible reasons why...drawing is free from expectations to produce or communicate, while writing is all about that. I'm sure R.'s anxiety level rises just thinking about writing at this point. I worry that they will take away his adaptive computer (fancy word for "laptop") and make him write. He just got the computer this week and is doing well with it. Sigh. Sometimes I think I know how R. feels--people coming at you from all sides. Sometimes I want to scream, "We're doing the best we can!" Sometimes I want to hold him like a little baby and go back to the time before we knew about all of this.