Diagnosis means "to know between", and diagnostic categories should highlight, not obscure, clinically meaningful differences, so that finding the appropriate diagnosis automatically directs clinicians toward appropriate treatment strategies. The appropriate interventions for a highly verbal, uncoordinated individual with Asperger's who, as is typical with Asperger's, has difficulties with visual processing and visual-motor integration are very, very different from those that would be appropriate for a non-verbal individual with classic autism who has visual-spatial strengths, and lumping the two of them together does not make sense either from a clinical or neuro-biological perspective.
Well put, Aculady, as usual.
At the same time, the existence of Asperger's as a "syndrome" dooms any treatment plan based on the diagnosis itself; it's a collection of traits, of which the affected individual has a subset, and you have to look at each trait in the subset to choose appropriate therapies to address each particular one. One size does not fit all in the autism world, IMO, not even if diagnosticians are doing a good job.
The new lumping only makes this problem worse.
DeeDee
