Anxiety in high-functioning autism: A pilot study of experience sampling using a mobile platform.

Hare et al. (2016) asked high-functioning adults with autism to carry a phone for one week. The phone beeped several times a day and asked, “How anxious do you feel right now?”

Each answer took 30 seconds. The team wanted to know if adults with autism would keep answering and if the answers showed real patterns.

People kept answering. Their mood lifted during the week they were asked. The tiny surveys caught anxiety spikes that clinic visits miss.

The method worked. Real-time data came straight from the person, not a parent or chart.

Adams et al. (2020) later used the same self-report trick with 6- to 14-year-olds. They found 96% of autistic kids say they feel anxious, yet only half think adults notice it at school. The 2016 adult pilot and the 2020 child survey line up: ask the person, get the story.

Ambrose et al. (2022) showed child anxiety predicts fewer home and community activities. Julian’s adult data now open the door to check if the same link holds in real time for grown-ups.

Chen et al. (2017) ran a similar phone-beep study but tracked social time, not mood. Both papers prove the method is doable outside the lab.

You can copy this tomorrow. Give your teen or adult client a free mood-tracking app. Set three random beeps a day. In one week you’ll see when and where anxiety jumps. Use that map to time coping skills, exposure trials, or sensory breaks right before the usual spike.