[dhosek]

One thing worth noting about the spectrum in autistic spectrum disorder is that it does not mean what many people assume it does, that it's referring to a range of severity with mild on one end and severe on the other.

Rather it's more a spectrum as in a spectrum of colors: there are a number of traits to autism, not all of which might be present in a person diagnosed with ASD so single-criteria tests like identify the emotions in these photographs, for example, don't really work as good diagnostic tools.

This article found with a quick Google search seems to sum up some of this reasonably well: https://www.appliedbehavioranalysisedu.org/what-is-meant-by-...