"I was not diagnosed as being Autistic until I was 18 years old. I went through the school not knowing and the school also did not know, which I think in some ways was good and some ways not so great as well. Sometimes I had difficultly understanding the intention of my teachers, and I'd be completely wrong. One time, we were in music class and one of the students answered the question with the word pig. And clearly that was the wrong answer, and all the students around me started laughing. I did not find it funny. But, because everyone around me was laughing, I was like, well the appropriate response here must be to laugh. I just started laughing because everyone else did. The teacher then singled me out in particular, and told me off for picking on the student, which I was really confused with. I was only laughing because everyone else was laughing. So from that moment on I just decided to never speak in that class. I thought the teacher was unfairly picking on me. But now that I have the diagnoses I wonder if I laughed differently, or something. But at the time, I didn't know. So I just became really quiet in that class from that point onwards. It was a good way of not getting into to trouble, if you just stay silent. I think teachers should look out for students doing that."