The Detection of Early Reading Performance and Its Relationship with Biopsychosocial Risk Factors in the Study of Learning Difficulties.

The study of the multiple processes involved in learning how to read can contribute towards the early detection of good and bad readers. However, it is necessary to take into consideration different biopsychosocial risk factors (pre- and perigestational, neonatal, medical, developmental and family-related) that may have a significant impact on neurodevelopment, producing atypical cognitive development that could lead to the presence of reading difficulties. The objective of this study was to identify the main psycholinguistic abilities involved in the early reading performance and analyse their relationship to biopsychosocial risk factors. A total of 110 subjects between the ages of 4 and 7 years old and enrolled in state-run schools in Spain participated in the study. Significant correlations were found between different psycholinguistic abilities and certain biopsychosocial risk factors (having had hyperbilirubinemia, having obtained a score lower than 9 on the Apgar test, having had language problems or a sibling with dyslexia). This relationship should be taken into account in the study of learning difficulties as a potential indicator to predict later reading development and even the presence of developmental dyslexia.

Suitability of Social Services for the Older Persons: Analysis of Degree of Fit between Needs and Services.

Increased life expectancy coupled with decreased birth rates has led to a notable aging of the population. In the social care sector, resources for the older persons should be allocated by means of objective instruments that ensure an appropriate fit between older people's needs and the characteristics of the services. This paper analyzes the appropriacy of actual assignments of resources in a sample of 632 older users of social services, evaluating the degree of fit between these assignments and those made by a Decision Making Model (DMM) which is strictly based on an objective assessment of user's needs and characteristics. The results indicate that biopsychosocial variables included as predictors in the DMM are appropriate for ensuring that the needs of the older persons are met and resources are optimized. However, the current assignments of users to services cannot be explained by relying solely on these variables, suggesting that the allocation of users to services may be conditioned by factors that are different from those covered by the DMM.