Hi everybody! I hope you are all coping ok during these difficult times. I am brand new to the forum and just after some initial opinions/ advice please. Apologies as this may be lengthy!
My beautiful daughter is 8, and since she was very young I have had my suspicions she may well be on the autistic spectrum. She had some delayed speech and didn't walk until well after ages one, but by her 2 year check she was as expected so there were no worries at that stage.
She has a few obsessive traits (pausing the television constantly and spotting inconsistencies is the main one - she will make a GREAT video editor someday!). When she was younger she used to line up her little toy figures etc and still does similar in that she organises her teddy bears in a specific order before bed.
She is a stickler for routine and gets really stressed out when certain things deviate from her expectations. School have never mentioned anything to us as I think she possibly masks it really well during school hours, which can lead to major meltdowns when she comes home. I think she does what could be described as 'stimming' - she jumps up and down constantly in front of the television and runs from one side of the room to the other looking up at the ceiling and making a humming sound. She recently broke her collarbone so was under strict orders not to jump about and she very obviously struggled with this at times. She doesn't do this anywhere else except my parents - she has an extremely close relationship with them and acts as she would at home, but anywhere else she becomes a little bit more withdrawn and really looks to her brother for reassurance.
At home she is very tactile with us and loves to be be cuddled and stroked, and she has a great relationship with her ten year old brother and my niece who is also 8. In school she is genuinely well loved by the whole class (and her teachers - she is a model pupil), but she doesn't have a specific 'best friend' and is very happy playing on her own. Academically she is a fantastic reader but in everything else she is probably average, except for maths which I think she struggles with somewhat. She takes things very literally - I find it difficult to explain what I mean by this but as an example we asked her to Facetime her Grandma yesterday to thank her for her Easter Egg. She called her and said "I'm ringing you to thank you for my Easter Egg". End of conversation!
She is quite immature at times, particularly in relation to what she watches on the television and the youtube videos she watches, and she is an extremely fussy eater and dresser. She had MAJOR tantrums when she was younger to the point where she would hit me and it was extremely upsetting. I quickly learned that staying calm and comforting her was the best way to stop the meltdowns and over the years, although she can still fly off the handle over seemingly nothing, I feel as I parents my husband and I manage this much better now and she hasn't been physical with me for probably about 3 years.
She has an extremely dry sense of humour and regularly has us in stitches with what she says, but sometimes gets upset when we laugh, thinking we are laughing at her. She very obviously doesn't realise she has said something funny sometimes and this confuses her.
So to get my point (sorry!) - for those parents who have experienced similar / more / less with your children, do you think I should be seeking a diagnosis for my daughter? We don't necessarilly feel we need any support at home and there are currently no issues in school as I say, but from experience does anybody think this may change as she is getting older? My worry is that we are selfishly going about our lives and just adapting to her when she needs, but I would be devastated if there is more we could / should be doing and this impacts her negatively later on. I know of adults who have a late diagnosis and they wish they had this when they were children so I am very conflicted as to what is best for my daughter.
Any advice very gratefully received
Thank you 
