PERSONAL NARRATIVE
Inspired Man With Autism
Wants to Reshape Education
For All
By Matthew PUNTER
M
y name is Matthew Punter, and I have
autism spectrum disorder (ASD), at-
tention deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD), and pathological demand
avoidance (PDA). Early this month I
was invited to Cambridge University
for consideration to study psycholo-
gy and behavioral sciences. Unbelievably, two years
prior I had the literacy age of a seven-year-old and
knew nothing of the world other than its inadequa-
cy to help people like myself on the spectrum. Now
I stand as a beacon of hope for sufferers let down by
an education system not designed by, or for, people
like us. I do this by sharing my journey and what I
have learned of the disorders as someone with first-
hand experience of the ups and downs associated
with autism, showing that there are capabilities of
the disability.
To understand how I got here, it’s important to know
where I came from. My first true experience of the
education system occurred in the early stages of
primary school. Only being a seven-year-old at the
time, I did not understand why I saw things differ-
ently than other children, but I knew I did, and teach-
ers never explained this to me; to be honest, I don’t
think they understood either. Due to the fact that I
could not make friends and always ended up in alter-
cations, I was provided a single desk in the corner of
the classroom, facing the wall. As a 20-year-old now,
I realize it was no wonder that the children saw me as
different and naughty; if only the teachers explained
my disorders to my peers, maybe things would have
been different. Ultimately, I was excluded from pri-
mary school because teachers could no longer cope
with my needs; to be fair, I couldn’t cope either. For
the next two years I bounced around half a dozen
special education needs schools that all tried the
same brute force techniques of restraints but to no
70 | Autism Parenting Magazine | Issue 87
avail. Consequently, the local educational authori-
ties withdrew their input.
It was then all up to me to help myself, and over the
next few years of my education absence, I constant-
ly fought my disorder until it was under control. This
took me until I was 17-years-old. Shortly after my 17th
birthday, I was finally ready to learn and re-enter the
education system. I contacted a woman named Terri
Westmoreland who I came to know at 10 years old
as she worked with me on a 1-2-1 basis before the
authorities withdrew their support. Terri had found-
ed and personally runs a school that specializes in
autism called Hope House School. Terri had founded
the school with the help of her husband after their