Parents of 26 children with diagnoses of Asperger’s disorder completed a symptom checklist to determine whether the children met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR; American

autism, or pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified. Results showed that almost all (20) met criteria for autism, and a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of Asperger’s disorder could not be confirmed in any child. Further, 95 % of the par-ents whose children did not have a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of Asperger’s disorder agreed with their child’s diagnosis of As-perger’s disorder. Our findings suggest that the hierarchical DSM-IV-TR criteria are not applied by clinicians to diagnose Asperger’s disorder because most children with diagnoses of Asperger’s disorder actually met DSM-IV-TR criteria for autism, which precludes a diagnosis of Asperger’s disorder. These find-ings are consistent with previous studies. Most experts now agree that autism is a spectrum disorder and Asperger’s dis-order is actually high-functioning autism. Implications for the next revision of the DSM are discussed. The validity of Asperger’s disorder (also referred to asAsperger syndrome) as a diagnosis separate and dis-tinct from autism remains an ongoing issue in the lit-erature. In 1981, Lorna Wing introduced the term Asperger syndrome to describe individuals who had autistic symptoms but better language and social skills than most individuals with autism (Wing, 1981). The disorder was named after Hans As-perger, who published case descriptions of individuals he re-ferred to as having “autistic psychopathy ” (Asperger, 1944). The term Asperger’s disorder was used for many years in Eu-rope before being formally included in the Diagnostic an