Ask Allison: My son is struggling to fit in at secondary school and is upset about his sports performance

Psychologist Allison Keating answers your queries about life and relationships

Question: My son has just turned 13. He is a year younger than most of his friends. He is football mad and plays GAA and soccer. He isn’t the best player but not the worst either.

When he meets up with his friends to play football, they have started to make fun of him if he misses a goal or makes a mistake. He then gets angry and that makes it worse. He has had a hard year settling into First Year in school and struggled to make friends as he was put into a form class with no one from his primary school class.