Evaluation of the Succeeding at College project for Ambitious about Autism, 2015-2016 : final report

Ambitious about Autism (www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk) is the national charity for children and young people with autism. It provides services, raises awareness and understanding, and campaigns for change. Its vision is, 'to make the ordinary possible for children and young people with autism' and its mission is, 'to help them to learn, thrive and achieve'. Ambitious about Autism, with its partners, nasen and the Association of Colleges, was commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) to run the Succeeding at College project from April 2015 until March 2016. The Succeeding at College project aimed to support more young people with autism to move from school into further education and improve their prospects of positive life outcomes in adulthood. The Succeeding at College project built on the earlier Department for Education sponsored Finished at School Programme which ran from April 2013 until March 2015 and involved four college–led partnerships ('hubs') supporting around 110 young people with autism to make a successful transition to post-school education. The Succeeding at College project involved the development and delivery of new face-to-face training hosted by colleges in all regions across England. The training was based on the learning from the Finished at School Programme. Additional online training on person-centred thinking tools was offered to all the professionals who took part in the face-to-face Finished at School training. The Succeeding at College project also involved monitoring the learner progress of the young people involved in the previous Finished at School Programme Cohort 1 (transitioned to post-school education in September 2014) and Cohort 2 (transitioned to post-school education in September 2015). This executive summary relates to the final report of the project

Stem Cells of Dental Origin: Current Research Trends and Key Milestones towards Clinical Application

International audienceDental Mesenchymal StemCells (MSCs), includingDental Pulp StemCells (DPSCs), StemCells fromHuman ExfoliatedDeciduous teeth (SHED), and Stem Cells From Apical Papilla (SCAP), have been extensively studied using highly sophisticated in vitro and in vivo systems, yielding substantially improved understanding of their intriguing biological properties. Their capacity to reconstitute various dental and nondental tissues and the inherent angiogenic, neurogenic, and immunomodulatory properties of their secretome have been a subject of meticulous and costly research by various groups over the past decade. Key milestone achievements have exemplified their clinical utility in Regenerative Dentistry, as surrogate therapeutic modules for conventional biomaterial-based approaches, offering regeneration of damaged oral tissues instead of simply ``filling the gaps.'' Thus, the essential next step to validate these immense advances is the implementation of well-designed clinical trials paving the way for exploiting these fascinating research achievements for patient well-being: the ultimate aim of this ground breaking technology. This review paper presents a concise overviewof the major biological properties of the human dental MSCs, critical for the translational pathway ``from bench to clinic.'

The socio-emotional functioning of primary aged children with specific language impairment

Aims: This thesis investigates the socio-emotional functioning of children with Specific\ud Language Impairment. It aims to: i) investigate different types of behavioural, emotional and\ud social difficulties; ii) examine which language dimension (receptive vs expressive vs pragmatic\ud language ability) is related to difficulties with socio-emotional functioning; iii) explore the role of\ud social cognition; iv) examine whether the nature of children's difficulties are context specific.\ud Sample: Participants were forty-two children with SLI, forty-two children matched for\ud chronological age and non-verbal cognitive ability, and forty-two children matched for language\ud ability. The children were identified from five mainstream primary schools and one Language\ud Unit.\ud Method: Parents and teachers completed a behavioural questionnaire assessing socioemotional\ud functioning, and a communication checklist assessing pragmatic language ability.\ud The children were assessed on tasks measuring emotion identification, emotion labelling,\ud emotion explanation, and knowledge of conflict resolution strategies.\ud Results: The SLI Group was rated significantly higher by parents and teachers than both\ud matched groups on all the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire subscales indicating\ud considerable problems with socio-emotional functioning. Parents and teachers reported\ud increased difficulties in children's pragmatic language ability on Children's Communication\ud Checklist-2 and varying significantly to both matched groups. Significant variations between\ud parent and teacher reports on difficulties with socio-emotional functioning and pragmatic\ud language ability existed only for the SLI Group. Significant group differences were found for all\ud the social cognition tasks. Social cognition, but not language ability, predicted both parent and\ud teacher rated behavioural, emotional and social difficulties for the SLI Group.\ud Conclusions: The results challenge current understanding about difficulties with socioemotional\ud functioning experienced by children with SLI by pointing to the crucial role of social\ud cognition and the importance of the social environment. Atypical developmental trajectories\ud are evident for this group of children with factors other than language playing more of a role for\ud their socio-emotional functioning