Early intervention for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tends to focus on enhancing social-communication skills. We report the acceptability, feasibility and impact on child functioning of a new 8 weeks parent-group intervention to manage restricted and repetitive behaviours (RRB) in young children with ASD aged 3-7 years. Forty-five families took part in the pilot RCT. A range of primary and secondary outcome measures were collected on four occasions (baseline, 10, 18 and 24 weeks) to capture both independent ratings and parent-reported changes in RRB. This pilot established that parents were willing to be recruited and randomised, and the format and content of the intervention was feasible. Fidelity of delivery was high, and attendance was 90 %. A fully powered trial is now planned.

The popular view of non-directive genetic counseling limits the counselor's role to providing information to clients and assisting families in making decisions in a morally neutral fashion. This view of non-directive genetic counseling is shown to be incomplete. A fuller understanding of what it means to respect autonomy shows that merely respecting client choices does not exhaust the duty. Moreover, the genetic counselor/client relationship should also be governed by the counselor's commitment to the principle of beneficence. When non-directive counseling is reexamined in light of both these principles, it becomes clear that there are cases in which counselors should attempt to persuade clients to reconsider their decisions. Such attempts are consistent with non-directive counseling because, while respecting the clients' decision-making authority, they insure that clients act with full knowledge of the moral consequences of their decisions.

Offspring from each of two inbred strains of mice (BALB/cJ and C57BL/6J) and their reciprocal crosses were tested in an open‐field apparatus at 10 ages, from 15 to 120 days. Cross‐sectional and longitudinal analyses were performed to assess separately the effects of age and prior test experience on open‐field activity and defecation. Increased activity was associated with increased age in both strains and their F1 reciprocal hybrids; however, the magnitude of this effect was a function of the genotype. Defecation also increased initially in all groups as a function of age; but, at later ages, different groups exhibited rather dissimilar defecation patterns. Prior experience was found to decrease activity in the open field in inbred strains and their reciprocal hybrids. The effect of prior experience on defecation was more complex: Within the two inbred strains, prior experience had relatively little effect on the pattern of defecation; for the F1 hybrids, however, prior experience led to a significant increase in defecation at most ages. It was suggested that the differential effect of test experience on open‐field activity and defecation represents a separation of two components of open‐field behavior, “exploration” and “emotionality.”

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