Papers by Catherine A Fiorello
Health-related disorders in children and adolescents: A guidebook for understanding and educating.
Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 2014
Children with math disabilities (MD) represent a heterogeneous group and often display deficits i... more Children with math disabilities (MD) represent a heterogeneous group and often display deficits in one or more cognitive domains. Math proficiency requires a number of different cognitive processes, including quantitative knowledge, working memory, processing speed, fluid reasoning, and executive functions. Assessment practices that do not address a childs individual cognitive strengths and weaknesses may result in inaccurate identification of MD and may not lead to the most effective interventions. This study evaluated the use of a cognitive strengths and weaknesses approach for identifying MD and examined whether grouping children into specific MD subtypes would help identify specific patterns of performance on cognitive and academic measures. Participants included 283 children, aged 6 to 16, who underwent evaluations for learning and/or behavior problems in the Southern United States and Western Canada. Using ConcordanceDiscordance Model (C-DM) SLD identification criteria, results revealed No SLD, Below Average MD, High-Functioning MD, and Other SLD groups, with examination of WJ-III Calculation, Math Fluency, and Applied Problems for MD subtypes undertaken. Results confirm that differing sets of cognitive skills predict math performance across groups, suggesting that children with MD show unique strengths in some cognitive areas, but may have difficulty utilizing these cognitive skills across various mathematical domains. Limitations, implications, and future research needs are addressed.
WISC-IV clinical assessment and intervention, 2008
A Guide to …, 2010
10 Integrating Neuropsychological Principles With Response to Intervention for Comprehensive Scho... more 10 Integrating Neuropsychological Principles With Response to Intervention for Comprehensive School-Based Practice JAMES B. HALE, CATHERINE A. FIORELLO, AND REBECCA THOMPSON There are two practice paradigms emerging in educational settings, both of which have ...
ED397375 - Computer-Generated Psychological Reports and Teachers.
WISC-IV clinical …, 2008
Page 132. 3 WISC-IV Interpretation for Specific Learning Disabilities Identification and Interventi... more Page 132. 3 WISC-IV Interpretation for Specific Learning Disabilities Identification and Intervention: A Cognitive Hypothesis Testing Approach 1 James B. Hale1, Catherine A. Fiorello2, Jeffrey A. Miller3, Kristen Wenrich4, Annemarie ...
Handbook of Education, …, 2009
Page 242. 12 Neuropsychology in school psychology Catherine A. Fiorello, James B. Hale, Scott L. ... more Page 242. 12 Neuropsychology in school psychology Catherine A. Fiorello, James B. Hale, Scott L. Decker, and Schehera Coleman IMPORTANCE OF NEUROPSYCHOLOGY FOR SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY Neuropsychology ...
Psychology in the …, 2008
Page 1. Psychology in the Schools, Vol. 45(9), 2008 C 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published onli... more Page 1. Psychology in the Schools, Vol. 45(9), 2008 C 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/pits.20330 DIFFERENTIAL ABILITY SCALES SECOND ...
Educational and Child Psychology
Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience significant academ... more Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience significant academic and behavioural problems in the classroom and other settings, but clinicians often rely on qualitative judgements and informant reports to formulate diagnostic impressions and make treatment recommendations rather than on direct measurement of child performance or behaviour. Although there is mounting evidence for a neuropsychological model of ADHD, the disorder remains largely a behavioural one, which could limit diagnostic accuracy and intervention efficacy, especially for academic problems in the classroom. In this study of 49 children diagnosed with ADHD, robust medication treatment effects were observed, with increasing dose resulting in better teacher ratings and direct observations of classroom academic performance and behaviour. However, when participants were classified according to level of neuropsychological impairment, only those children who showed significant deficits in...
Students with an educational classification of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) make up 1.1% of the... more Students with an educational classification of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) make up 1.1% of the total enrollment in public schools and 8.3% of the total number of students receiving special education services and is the fastest growing disability classification (U.S. Department of Education, 2016). As more students with these unique needs begin to age out of the educational system, the demand for quality transition planning services that address the spectrum of ability in this population increases. While IDEA (2018) provides some basic guidelines, there is significant room for interpretation and individualization within these mandates. As such, practitioners are often left searching the available literature to determine the best way to provide students, families, and school personnel with some guidance in interpreting and implementing federal law. Furthermore, the best practices literature is limited and often does not address some of the unique needs of students with ASD, given t...
The School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET) is a commonly used measure of the implementation fidelity o... more The School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET) is a commonly used measure of the implementation fidelity of school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports (SWPBIS) programs. The current study examines the content and concurrent validity of the SET to establish whether an alternative approach to weighting and scoring the SET might provide a more accurate assessment of SWPBIS implementation fidelity. Twenty published experts in the field of SWPBIS completed online surveys to obtain ratings of the relative importance of each item on the SET to sustainable SWPBIS implementation. Using the experts' mean ratings, four novel SET scoring approaches were developed: unweighted, reweighted using mean ratings, unweighted dropping lowest quartile items, and reweighted dropping lowest quartile items. SET 2.1 data from 1,018 schools were used to compare the four novel and two established SET scoring methods and examine their concurrent validity with the Team Implementation Checklist 3.1 (TIC;...
This study examined the existence of implicit racial bias among public school teachers within the... more This study examined the existence of implicit racial bias among public school teachers within the gifted referral process. Public school teachers from urban, suburban, and rural school districts surrounding a large northeastern city were be provided vignettes of gifted students demonstrating "typical" and "hidden" giftedness. The names and races of students within the vignettes were randomized to represent either a White male student or a Black male student. Univariate and multivariate analyses were utilized to determine the existence of significant differences in perceptions of giftedness and need for referral among teachers. In contrast to the hypotheses of the study, vignettes describing Black "typically" gifted students were rated as significantly higher than White "typically" gifted students. Black students also did not experience a significant decrease in ratings of giftedness and need for referral when described as "hidden" gi...
International adoption continues to be a popular method of growing a family in the United States.... more International adoption continues to be a popular method of growing a family in the United States. The effects of institutionalization prior to adoption can be seen across developmental areas including cognitively, socially, emotionally, and physically. Although much research has been conducted on the effects of institutionalization, abandonment, and neglect on a child's development, less time has been given to the quality of services a family can receive after the adoption has been finalized and the family begins their new life together. One significant resource for these families is the school system. The purpose of this study was to explore the variety of services a family receives through their child's educational setting as well as parent's satisfaction with these services. It was hypothesized parents of internationally adopted children are not completely satisfied with the services received in their child's educational settings due to non-expertise regarding ado...
Type-T behavior is a term coined by F. Farley (see McGraw-Hill, Concise Dictionary of Modern Medi... more Type-T behavior is a term coined by F. Farley (see McGraw-Hill, Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine, 2002) to reflect individual differences in risk-taking and thrill-seeking (T) behavior. This study was designed to explore and expand the understanding of Type-T behavior in relation to other individual differences of current psychological and educational interest, namely flourishing, mindset, psychological entitlement, creativity/innovation, and stress. The study used both a college student sample and a non-college adult sample to investigate whether the type of sample makes a difference in research of this type. The inclusion of the latter sample was prompted by the need to identify and examine psychological processes beyond the college undergraduate, given the over-representation of the latter participants in psychological research. Four hundred seventy- two participants including two hundred forty-eight students and two hundred twenty-four non-college adults completed an online...
Reading problems can have an extremely adverse effect on a person's quality of life, opportun... more Reading problems can have an extremely adverse effect on a person's quality of life, opportunities in education and employment, and access to enjoyable activities (Daly, Chafouleas, & Skinner, 2005). Unfortunately, almost 20% of students in the United States have significant difficulty learning to read (Good, Simmons, & Smith, 1998). Federal legislation drafted in an attempt to address this important issue (No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, Reauthorization of Individuals with Disabilities Act 2004) propose initiatives that are unclear to teachers and practitioners in terms of how to best instruct students to become successful readers. For older students, and students identified with emotional disturbance, research in this area is considerably lacking. Many students with emotional disturbance have poor reading skills which follow them into the later grades and adulthood. This cycle of poor reading and difficult classroom behaviors often spirals out of control, with each variable ...
Block scheduling is a newer school scheduling structure, first appearing at the middle school lev... more Block scheduling is a newer school scheduling structure, first appearing at the middle school level in the mid-1990's (Juvonen, Le, Kagenoff, Augustine, & Constant, 2004). Middle school advocates have supported block scheduling because research shows it meets the social-emotional and developmental needs of middle school children. Yet, little research on the impact of block scheduling on middle school standardized test scores currently exists. Using a sample of classrooms from a suburban public school in New Jersey, this study sought to compare standardized test scores in math, language arts literacy, and science of 8th grade students before and after the implementation of the block schedule. Twenty-seven one-way ANOVAs (accounting for subject, gender, and special education population) were conducted to assess for significant differences between testing years. Post hoc analyses were also conducted when differences were found. Overall, the study found no significant differences in...
Executive function (EF) processes are crucial for meeting demands in the classroom. Because of th... more Executive function (EF) processes are crucial for meeting demands in the classroom. Because of this impact on schooling, it is important to have tools that accurately measure EF in order to facilitate the identification of student needs and the development of interventions. This project assessed the concurrent, criterion-related validity of one of these tools, the Comprehensive Executive Functioning Inventory, Self-Report (CEFI-SR; Naglieri & Goldstein, 2013). This study correlated adolescents' reports about their own behavior to scores derived from a direct measure of executive function to determine if teens were able to accurately rate their own EF abilities, indicating that the CEFI-SR had concurrent validity. Seventy-nine seventh and eighth grade students from a suburban middle school were recruited. The average age for the sample was 13 years and 10 months old, and 62% of the sample consisted of female students. Participants completed the CEFI-SR in small groups, and then, ...
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Papers by Catherine A Fiorello