I was diagnosed with autism at 35, and that has been the result of many things. I remember, when I was little, I had trouble with co-ordination. I remember when I was in kindergarten, the teaching assistant wanting us to jump with our feet together and I struggled. I also remember being upset by kids squealing.

In Year Two, I had two teachers, one of whom was really good, and called my mother up to school and told her that I was having trouble with things like catching a ball. (I remember a teacher, in Year One, calling me butterfingers, and I remember this same teacher, on December 3, 1980, our teacher felt sick and had to go home, so our class was split and we went to one of two other teachers, and we were doing some activity that had us moving around in a circle. I remember a boy in my class, who had multiple allergies, being slapped by a teacher, this was an old school teacher, and her telling him that he was the laziest little boy she'd seen. We then had to skip and I had a lot of trouble co-ordinating my movements, and when I came past her, she slapped me and yelled at me to skip. That teacher retired the following year). That teacher suggested that my mother have me assessed. Unfortunately, my mother was given the wrong diagnosis regarding me. That teacher was replaced by a cranky teacher who had no patience.

Depression and anxiety were a constant shadow and I remember, in Year Three, my teacher was a short-tempered bully. My grandmother died when I was in Year Two, and my grandfather had his leg amputated when I was in Year Three. If my mother had been more understanding, when my Year Three teacher called her up to school and told her what a terrible kid I was, she would have said, "Okay, Peter's grandmother, to whom he was very close, and who was very patient with him, died last year. and his grandfather, who is her widower, has been very sick, and had to have his right lower leg amputated. And for a while, it was touch and go." Then, if I'd had a different teacher, they would have said, "My goodness! No wonder the poor kid's been anxious and losing concentration in class. He's probably scared that he's either going to be called to the office to find you there, or arrive home from school to have him tell you that his grandfather has died! And, I know attendance matters, but you told me his grandfather is in hospital in Brisbane, BUT, and I don't mean he can do it when he feels like it, or he can just attend two days a week if that's all he wants, if he wants to take a day, or part of the day, and we've got a nine week term, here, so maybe one day every four weeks, off, to see his grandfather in hospital, I completely understand. And I will cut him some slack."

Being diagnosed autistic as an adult can also be due to less understanding of autism when you were a child.

I remember Cher, when she was on a biographical programme, saying that teachers would say to her mother, "Cherilynn is lazy. She's not applying herself." Cher said that she was applying the hell out of herself. And she was later diagnosed as dyslexic.