The CALT (Certified Academic Language Therapist) credential is awarded by ALTA (Academic Language Therapy Association) to specialists in Structured Literacy instruction. CALTs primarily serve students with dyslexia and related language-based learning disabilities using the Orton-Gillingham approach — a systematic, sequential, cumulative, explicit, and multisensory method that the neuroscience of reading consistently supports.
Our free printable PDF is packed with exam-style questions covering phonological awareness, phonics and decoding, syllable types, morphology, standardized assessment, and intervention techniques. Print it, work through every question, score your answers, then sharpen your weaknesses with the online CALT practice test for timed practice.
The CALT exam is built on the structured literacy framework: phonology, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and oral language. Instruction must be systematic, sequential, cumulative, explicit, and multisensory. Candidates must distinguish these attributes from general reading instruction and explain why each is critical for students with dyslexia.
Questions test phoneme identification, segmenting, blending, and manipulation tasks. You must know the difference between phonological awareness (sound structure of spoken language at multiple levels) and phonemic awareness (awareness of individual phonemes only). Phonological memory and its role in decoding are also tested.
The six syllable types are a cornerstone of the exam: closed (short vowel, ends in consonant), open (ends in vowel, long vowel sound), vowel-consonant-e (VCe, silent e makes vowel long), vowel team (two letters make one vowel sound), r-controlled (vowel controlled by r), and consonant-le (unaccented final syllable). Morphology questions address prefixes, suffixes, and Latin/Greek roots. Spelling rules include the doubling rule, the drop-e rule, and the change-y-to-i rule. Candidates must understand the difference between encoding (spelling) and decoding (reading).
The exam covers major standardized tools: CTOPP-2 (phonological processing), TOWRE-2 (word reading efficiency), GORT-5 (oral reading fluency and comprehension), and KTEA-3 (academic achievement). Diagnostic reading inventory and error analysis — categorizing substitutions, omissions, additions, and reversals — are also tested.
Know the standard OG lesson structure: review of previously learned concepts, introduction of a new concept, guided practice with immediate corrective feedback. Multisensory techniques — visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile (VAKT) — must be explained and applied. Progress monitoring methods and how to adjust instruction based on data are tested throughout.
Fluency instruction includes repeated reading, timed reading, and reader theater. Vocabulary instruction covers explicit teaching of academic and tier-two words. Comprehension strategies address text structure, inferencing, and graphic organizers. Written expression — sentence construction, paragraph organization, and essay writing — rounds out the content domain.
The phonological processing model and the dual-route model of reading (lexical and non-lexical routes) are testable. Brain imaging research showing that structured literacy intervention normalizes neural activation patterns in students with dyslexia provides the scientific foundation for the CALT credential.
The printable PDF helps you study away from screens, but timed testing under exam conditions is essential for certification readiness. Use the online CALT practice test to answer questions on a timer, read answer explanations that reinforce the underlying theory, and confirm you can apply syllable type rules, assessment selection, and Orton-Gillingham methodology under pressure on exam day.