Annakennedyonline states that at this time the action of diagnosing 'Autism' is lacking any direction. For too many years now people have been trying to make a big issue fit a box that it never will. There is a want to classify and make the Autistic Spectrum something smaller and more defined than it actually is. In doing that we now have too many cases of people not receiving a diagnosis or having to wait for years of medical in-fighting around them to gain one.   Even down to the very basics of which diagnostic assessment criteria is used is not clear. On the one hand the NHS sets out that ICD-10 IS the diagnostic criteria recognised and used. On the other hand professionals WITHIN the NHS state they diagnosing to what the DSM-V states and often misunderstanding what is within it. Instead of giving an ASD diagnosis, as was meant to happen, we now have evidence of families being told 'ah we would have given you a diagnosis before but under DSM-V 'Aspergers' no longer exists and as your child's symptoms meet with what we view as Aspergers we can no longer diagnose'.   Unless all health professionals FULLY understand the 'Big Picture' that Autism is and the full scope of the Spectrum and are given a ONE go to point to diagnose from this system is always going to fail.   http://annakennedyonline.com/autism-diagnosis-survey-in-the-united-kingdom/