Violent 7 year old - please help

[Pantsonyourhead]

I'm an MN regular but have named changed for this as sis knows my MN name.

My sis is at her wit's end with how to help her 7 yr old DS. He has difficulty in socialising with other children and dealing with his anger. Today he scratched his teacher and drew blood when he was asked to stop doing an activity. I talked to him tonight and he told me that he knew that he had "done a bad thing", but couldn't stop himself. He was visibly upset. He also said that he didn't know why he gets angry but that he wanted the anger to go away.

He has been statemented and is considered to be somewhere on the autistic spectrum and of average intelligence. He gets 15 hours of 1:1 atm. None of the assessments have really addressed the underlying problem of the anger - when I have observed him he gets angry very quickly and very fiercely about what seem to be inconsequential things.

I suggested to my sis a few weeks ago that he might benefit from a fuller assessment by a Psych - to try to get to the bottom of these issues. Is this the right thing to do? Does anyone have any advice on how do to that? Am I totally off beam? How can he best be helped?

I'm close to my sis and would not dream of telling her how to parent her child but she is so lost and upset I really want to help her if I can.

I hope I've put everything relevant down in the OP. Many thanks all

[ommmward]

"He has difficulty in socialising with other children "

"drew blood when he was asked to stop doing an activity"

school can be really really horrible for a child who is not yet socially confident (and unlikely to be an environment in which that is easy to overcome if at 7yo the child hasn't obtained the necessary savvy)

school can be really really horrible for a child who is not yet ready to be learning on the timetable of other people. Children on the spectrum often have a hard enough time queuing for 5 mins at the supermarket checkout. When they are in school, it's as if they spend their whole day having to queue for various checkouts but, just as they almost get their fish and meat to the front of the conveyor belt, they get told to abandon all that shopping, right now, and go to the fruit aisle to choose some items to buy.

Any chance of getting him out of school and home edding? there are many many ASD children who have a horrendous time in school and thrive when educated at home, at their own pace (academically and socially). Or get him into a specialist autism unit attached to a school (there are a very few of them around the country) where the staff are likely to be a lot gentler in the whole putting-spectrum-child-onto-other-people's-agenda thing?

IMO some children on the spectrum respond really well to a lifestyle in which the stressful triggers are largely removed, and then gradually introduced at a pace the child can cope with. no need for "anger management" if you have "environment management".