The Managing Repetitive Behaviours Parent Group Study (MRB Study) is a multi-centre study with parents/carers of young children (aged 3-9yrs 11months) with Autism Spectrum Disorder across a range of functioning levels and abilities (verbal and minimally verbal).

Restricted and repetitive behaviours (RRB) are a core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and may include arm or hand-flapping, spinning or twirling, repetitive activities involving the senses (such as repeatedly feeling a particular texture or listening to the same song), repeating favourite phrases (even if they do not match the context) or insisting on a daily routine like having exactly the same snacks for lunch and not accepting change. While RRB can help children with autism manage and express their feelings, some RRB cause distress for the child and their family, interfere with learning and make it more difficult to interact with others. Currently there is no specific support available for parents of young children with autism to help them to better understand their child's RRB and manage those RRB that might be challenging. We have developed, with parents and professionals, a new parent-based group intervention, called Managing Repetitive Behaviours (MRB), that focuses on identification, understanding and management of challenging RRB in young children with ASD.

Parents taking part in this study will be randomly allocated by computer to either the MRB parent group or Learning About Autism group run by the National Autistic Society. Having two different groups will allow us to find out whether MRB (new intervention with strategies specific to RRB) or Learning About Autism group (established approach with more general strategies) is more effective.

In addition to attending the group sessions, parents taking part will also be asked to complete some questionnaires before and after the groups.

The study is running from 2018-2022 and will be involve 250 families across Tyneside, Teeside, and Edinburgh and the Lothians.

From the start of MRB, parents have been involved in development groups, have contributed to the design of the intervention and have informed the content of the parent information sheets. Parents continue to input to the running of the study as members of the trial steering committee.