The good news is in the long run, it doesn't matter.  Asperger's is in the
Autism range and many folks with Asperger's have Autism written down
because, in most states and most agencies, Austism will automatically get
you into programs.  There is still much debate about Asperger's and it's
relationship and differential diagnosis  from high functioning Autism and
Pervasive Developmental Disorder.
Beth the OT

I understand that it makes it easier on the bureaucrats to throw all of those
things under one "umbrella".Unfortunately, in doing that they are
oversimplifying.If they're going to do that , why bother giving any of it a
different name ??Why did they spend all that time giving me explanations of
the characteristics of Asperger's ? I asked our insurance agent if our son
would have been able to get life insurance if he'd had the autism diagnosis
when we insured him. His answer, "probably not".I found that appalling
because autism doesn't shorten life expectancy.

The general public has one stereotyped impression of the word autism.They
will never gain an understanding of these related disorders if they never
read or hear the words.My fear is that the autism label will prevent my
daughter from being allowed to lead the kind of life that she wants.So you
see, it really DOES matter..at least to parents anyway.

Karen :)