Pleasure to work with

Special needs kids' parents hear this phrase a lot. The twix's speech therapy progress reports came today -- different then their preschool reports.

Ryan is doing what is asked of him. Repeats all the 2-3 word phrases and basically just does what they request.

Sean on the other hand, "is a pleasure to work with." He follows instruction 60% of the time. He repeats "on occasion." Basically I got the impression that he is NOT a 'pleasure' to work with.

Sean shakes his head no, when asked any yes or no question. He grunts in reply to most things said to him.

How did I come to realize the over usage of said phrase? I realized that of the twix, Ryan would be the pleasure and Seany would be the one they just reported the progress on. Since she made a point of saying SEAN is a PLEASURE to work with, I now understand this is one of those phrases that means the opposite intent.