Hi I am not sure what to do for the best for my son. I am concerned that he may be on the autistic spectrum. He manages well at school so concerns raised there but can be challenging in all aspects of his life. His main issues are getting easily overwhelmed/stressed if something is not exactly correct/as he expects it and if something even minor goes wrong (spilling juice). Often it is not clear what it is that has caused it. He will take a lot of time to recover and want to be on his own for ages until he calms down. He often blames himself and wants to break things or sometimes blames someone else. This is a nightmare if we are trying to go out and getting ready for a certain time is a massive trigger. Food has always been an issue and we have all leaned to live with this, but only certain foods, on separate plates and worry over germs (often eat nothing at buffets etc). New clothes, shoes can be stressful and often wears the same things for ages. Coped really well socially until 7-8, he can be confident and good fun but struggles with too many people and social rules and often not sure when he is being teased or not. He has just started secondary school and appears to have no friends and little contact with those from primary school . He is only occasionally bothered (has a brother close in age). When he was younger he played sports and was in cubs/beavers but found the stress of attending after school too much and stopped enjoying it. He doesn't do any after school activities except for a music lesson on his own. I am not sure whether to try and get him assessed or not? Not sure how I would be about. His guidance teacher thinks he has settled in really well. When he is calm he is lovely and charming and I feel I spend my life trying to prevent stress but failing ( and probably not doing anything right!). Whether he is on the ASD or not I need help to manage his behaviour. Today e.g. has been a difficult day. Last night watched a film of his choosing all good. A little stress when we very struggling with all the various remotes to get the correct film and thought he was going to abandon it but he settled down. Today (school holiday) didn't get out of bed until 11.30 . Reminded him that was meeting his gran for a walk at 12.30. In a strop because different place to what he suggested. Went back to bed. After many reminders go up and started breakfast. Accidentally poured apple juice in cereal, abandoned breakfast, went back to room. Lots of coaxing to get dressed. His behaviours is worse without food so gave him snacks to take. Met my mum and he was great, chatting happy most of the time. Discovered he threw the snack in the bin ( not sure why - possibly self punishment for "wasting breakfast", possibly as he didn't want it ) That is quire mild but many days are a battle. He is now stressed and unhappy for homework he was due to do will be hard to get done. That is quite mild but very frequent. I am looking for ways to help make life easier for my son and less disruptive for whole family. Apologies for the lack of paragraphs - I cannot work out how to put them in!