The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 5th edition (DSM-5) established a single diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that includes Asperger’s syndrome, formerly considered a separate condition. The change was meant to eliminate diagnostic ambiguities, but it has encouraged schools to take a “one size fits all” approach, putting all children with autistic features in the same classroom.

This concerns many parents and professionals. “Typically, such classrooms focus on the more severely impaired, often non-verbally communicative children without helping the higher functioning children, such as those with Asperger’s,” says Heidelise Als, PhD, a psychologist at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Als and her co-investigator Frank Duffy, MD, a neurologist at Boston Children’s, decided to take an unbiased look at children diagnosed with autism, using data from their EEGs. In a paper in BMC Neurology, they conclude that autism is not a single entity, but falls into two distinct clusters — ripe for additional investigation.