DSM-IV criteria:

299.00 Autistic Disorder

1. A total of six (or more) items from (1), (2), and (3), with at least two from (1), and one each from (2) and (3):
1. Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
1. Marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors, such as eye-to- eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
2. Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
3. A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest)
2. Qualitative impairments in communication, as manifested by at least one of the following:
1. Delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language (not accompanied by an attempt to compensate through alternative modes of communication such as gesture or mime)
2. in individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others
3. Stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language
4. Lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play appropriate to developmental level
3. Restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities as manifested by at least one of the following:
1. Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
2. Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
3. Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting or complex whole-body movements)
4. persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
2. Delays or abnormal functioning in at least one of the following areas, with onset prior to age 3 years: (1) social interaction, (2) language as used in social communication, or (3) symbolic or imaginative play.
3. The disturbance is not better accounted for by Rett’s disorder or childhood disintegrative disorder.

299.80 Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified

This category should be used when there is a severe and pervasive impairment in the development of reciprocal social interaction or verbal and nonverbal communication skills, or when stereotyped behavior, interests, and activities are present, but the criteria are not met for a specific pervasive developmental disorder, schizophrenia, schizotypal personality disorder, or avoidant personality disorder. For example, this category includes "atypical autism" –presentations that do not meet the criteria for autistic disorder because of late age of onset, atypical symptomatology, or subthreshold symptomatology, or all of these.

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299.80 Asperger’s Disorder

1. Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
1. Marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors, such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
2. Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
3. A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
4. Lack of social or emotional reciprocity
2. Restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
1. Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
2. Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
3. Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
4. Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
3. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
4. There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years).
5. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood.
6. Criteria are not met for another specific pervasive developmental disorder or schizophrenia.

299.80 Rett’s Disorder

1. All of the following:
1. Apparently normal prenatal and perinatal development
2. Apparently normal psychomotor development through the first 5 months after birth
3. Normal head circumference at birth
2. Onset of all of the following after the period of normal development:
1. Deceleration of head growth between ages 5 and 48 months
2. Loss of previously acquired purposeful hand skills between ages 5 and 30 months with the subsequent development of stereotyped hand movements (i.e., hand-wringing or hand washing)
3. Loss of social engagement early in the course (although often social interaction develops later)
4. Appearance of poorly coordinated gait or trunk movements
5. Severely impaired expressive and receptive language development with severe psychomotor retardation

299.10 Childhood Disintegrative Disorder

1. Apparently normal development for at least the first 2 years after birth as manifested by the presence of age-appropriate verbal and nonverbal communication, social relationships, play, and adaptive behavior.
2. Clinically significant loss of previously acquired skills (before age 10 years) in at least two of the following areas:
1. Expressive or receptive language
2. Social skills or adaptive behavior
3. Bowel or bladder control
4. Play
5. Motor Skills
3. Abnormalities of functioning in at least two of the following areas:
1. Qualitative impairment in social interaction (e.g., impairment in nonverbal behaviors, failure to develop peer relationships, lack of social or emotional reciprocity)
2. Qualitative impairments in communication (e.g., delay or lack of spoken language, inability to initiate or sustain a conversation, stereotyped and repetitive use of language, lack of varied make-believe play)
3. Restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, including motor stereotypies and mannerisms
4. The disturbance is not better accounted for by another specific pervasive developmental disorder or by schizophrenia.

Source: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (Text Revision) 2000.

ICD-10 criteria:

Chapter V
Mental and behavioural disorders
(F00-F99)

Source: World Health Organization ex 11/12/2006   © Copyright WHO/DIMDI 1994/2006

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Gillberg's criteria:

All of the following six criteria must be met for confirmation of diagnosis:

1. Severe impairment in reciprocal social interaction (at least two of the following)
   1. inability to interact with peers
   2. lack of desire to interact with peers
   3. lack of appreciation of social cues
   4. socially and emotionally inappropriate behavior
2. All-absorbing narrow interest (at least one of the following)
   1. exclusion of other activities
   2. repetitive adherence
   3. more rote than meaning
3. Imposition of routines and interests (at least one of the following)
   1. on self, in aspects of life
   2. on others
4. Speech and language problems (at least three of the following)
   1. delayed development
   2. superficially perfect expressive language
   3. formal, pedantic language
   4. odd prosody, peculiar voice characteristics
   5. impairment of comprehension including misinterpretations of literal/implied meanings
5. Non-verbal communication problems (at least one of the following)
   1. limited use of gestures
   2. clumsy/gauche body language
   3. limited facial expression
   4. inappropriate expression
   5. peculiar, stiff gaze
6. Motor clumsiness: poor performance on neurodevelopmental examination

Source: Varied; Internet, 2007. These criteria never have had an "official" version that I know about. But there's remarkably little variation among the versions I've seen.

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Notes:
All three sets of criteria are similar, yet still different. None are meant to be definitions (there are no objective tests). All are best used only as guidelines interpreted by professionals filtering observation through their experience.

NB: All these criteria were developed in the context of evaluating children (primarily male). They do not scale very well to adults; the older the adult, the more experienced, the less well they scale!
"Older" Aspergers in particular may avoid detection entirely; undoubtedly many have.   ...As have many females of all ages.

Gillberg published the first-ever diagnostic criteria for Asperger's Syndrome in 1989, and refined them a year later. They are more true to Asperger's own first description than are any others, hence some diagnosticians prefer them over the more widely used DSM-IV and ICD-10 (above). This is more true in European countries; far less true in the United States. ...Wherein DSM-IV holds sway and mental health "professionals" are influenced greatly by prospects of commercial gain.

Note the way DSM-IV implies there's this and then that, and then we're done. ICD-10 is more relaxed, in a way, implying latitude in interpretation. I believe Gillberg's criteria, less "one-size-fits-all" but as definite (or more) as those in ICD-10 or DSM-IV is the more human of the three. Gillberg's also seem to scale rather better to adults than do the other two.

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