How pragmatically useful/precise is a spectrum diagnosis?

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I think Giflegolas is talking in terms of the lifespan, not day to day situations. The DSM 5 acknowledges that certain symptoms may not be fully apparent until a child gets old enough to encounter more complex social situations. At the same time, it acknowledges that one can develop coping strategies that will henceforward mask symptoms. So, if you hypothetically have a child who is Level 1 ASD, their symptoms may not be completely apparent until they are a bit older (e.g., age seven). But if that same child were to somehow quickly learn a successful coping strategy (say by age eight), then their ASD would have been apparent for only a year. Before or after that one-year period, it would be hard to diagnose the child because at least some of the symptoms of autism are being hidden.

My guess is the authors of the DSM 5 would say that a child who essentially never has their ASD symptoms fully unmasked is one who doesn’t warrant an ASD diagnosis. Per the DSM, it is not enough to have characteristics aligned with ASD. They must also cause severe impairments in major domains of life. If a person has Aspie characteristics but has figured out how to deal with them so successfully that there are no impairments in daily life, then (per DSM 5) that person is not diagnosable with ASD. But as evidenced by the stories of many people here on WP, things don’t always work out so cleanly. One can develop coping strategies sufficient enough to make it look like one does not have ASD, but still end up having a lot of problems and spending a lifetime trying to understand the reasons for them.

@SplendidSnail, I was just about to make a bad pun, but I stopped myself.

@RandomFact, thanks for clarifying my post, that's exactly what I was talking about. I suppose it wasn't entirely clear.