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Developmental delays in social and communication functioning have been proposed as a possible risk factor for offending behaviour in both young people and adults. These deficits may be particularly common in young people with both offending behaviours and mental health needs. This article describes how an assessment for pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) may be undertaken in a forensic adolescent mental health setting and integrated into the overall needs and risk assessment. Two case histories are summarised to illustrate the advantages and challenges of using this approach as part of the assessment and management of young people. It is likely that a thorough evaluation of social and communication functioning can contribute to developing effective management strategies for patients with offending behaviours and complex needs.

Research evidence concerning the mental health of the Chinese population in Britain is much more limited than for other ethnic groups. The purpose of this paper is to get a better understanding of the mental health needs of Chinese children living in the North East of England and their parents’ experiences and knowledge about the mental health services.

The authors invited parents from two Chinese language schools to complete the Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire (SDQ) and a seven-question self-report questionnaire.

In total, 76 out of 158 questionnaires returned. The mean scores of SDQ were lower than those reported in China, Hong Kong and UK. Only 43 per cent of parents knew how to seek psychiatric help if they suspect their children have mental health problems. Also, almost one-third of the parents believed that language barrier would be an obstacle for them to seek help.

This is the first study in UK to look at the mental health of Chinese children and young people from their parents’ perspectives. This is also the first study in UK to compare their mental health wellbeing (via using SDQ) with their counterparts in other countries. This study has brought some clarity and new information to light about this ethnic minority group.

Technology provision and Next Generation Learning Spaces (NGLS) should respond to the active learning needs of twenty-first century learners and privilege multiple ‘pictures of learning’ and associated knowledge work. In this sense it is important for NGLS to be pedagogically agnostic – agile enough to cater for a range of pedagogical approaches within the one physical space. In this chapter, the democratising and potentially disruptive power of new digital technologies to facilitate the privileging of these multiple pictures of learning is explored, recognising the significant rise in student ownership and academic use of mobile technologies. With their escalating ubiquity and their facilitation of active knowledge work, research around considerations for the implementation of mobile digital technologies is canvassed, highlighting a range of issues to be considered. This is part of the ‘hidden work’ of technology implementation. Without this hidden work, the potential of NGLS in facilitating and privileging active learning and multiple pictures of learning is diminished and the potential for reinforcing already powerful and potentially exclusionary modes of knowledge work increases. Finally to assist in articulating the hidden work of digitally enabled NGLS, a model is proposed to help understand how ease of use and confidence impacts on student and academic knowledge work.

The transition from pediatric to adult health care is challenging for youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Many tools have been developed to facilitate transition but studies have not assessed their utility or readiness to be implemented in primary care practices. The purpose of this paper is to rate existing health care transition tools to identify tools ready for use in primary care clinics and develop a set of transition principles.

Four pediatric and family medicine providers from community health centers reviewed 12 transition tools and provided ratings and in-depth responses about the usefulness and feasibility of each tool through online surveys and telephone interviews. A conference call was used to discuss the findings and develop a set of transition principles.

The top rated tools included three youth self-management tools, two tools focused on ASD information and one tool focused on communication. No one tool was top rated by all providers and none of the tools was ready to be implemented without revisions. The transition principles developed focused on the use of selected tools to involve all youth in regular conversations about transition at every well child visit beginning at age 14 and adapting that process for youth with special needs.

This study is unique in asking primary care providers to assess the applicability of incorporating existing and publicly available transition tools in their own practices and developing a set of transition principles.