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They’re calling it a spectrum of disorders now, with Aspergers being on the milder side, and autism on the more serious side. That may be true, but I think they open up the possibility for more misdiagnoses just because, with a spectrum, there is no limit to the number of gradations you can dream up. If a child displays only one or two of the symptoms of Aspergers, but not enough to meet all the diagnostic requirements, they can just place the child a little bit lower on the spectrum, whether that is an accurate assessment of the child’s condition or not.

They’re calling it a spectrum of disorders now, with Aspergers being on the milder side, and autism on the more serious side...as I recall it back in the day, "autism" was a vague, hazy diagnosis whose essential element was that it was some sort of "organic" disorder, meaning that there was assumed to be some unspecified maldevelopment or injury to the brain itself causing it, with the implication that there was little that could be done to improve the condition. Apparently there's been a lot of refinement and reinterpretation of the diagnosis since, else it's hard to understand how such a disorder could be meaningfully integrated into any "spectrum"......