"on the spectrum," as we say today

Выражение встречается в следующем контексте:

. These kids were all "on the spectrum," as we say today, and that raises a question I put this way in that first column: "Was it coincidence the first few cases of these strikingly similar disorders were identified at the same time, by the same term, in children born the same decade, by doctors thousands of miles apart? "Or, is it a clue to when and where autism started -- and why? (Речь идет о двух группах детей больных аутизмом, которых извучали ученые двух стран, не подозревая о работах друг друга)

Заранее спасибо

"Последние два десятилетия резко увеличилось количество детей, заболевших аутизмом и заболеваниями аутичного спектра..."

from Wikipedia:

The autistic spectrum (sometimes referred to as the autism spectrum) is a developmental and behavioral syndrome that results from certain combinations of characteristically autistic traits. Although these traits may be normally distributed in the population, some individuals inherit or otherwise manifest more autistic traits. At the severe end of the spectrum is low-functioning autism which has profound impairments in many areas, to Asperger's syndrome, and high-functioning autism, to "normal" behaviour and perhaps hypersocialization on the high end of the spectrum.

In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10), autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are classified as pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), as opposed to specific developmental disorders like dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, or dyspraxia.

Хотя, скорей всего, такое "совпадение" не случайно....