CALT — Certified Academic Language Therapist — Questions and Answers

Question 1: A clinician notes that 'refer' → 'referred' (consonant doubled) but 'refer' → 'reference' (consonant NOT doubled, producing *'referrence'). Which principle most precisely accounts for this apparent inconsistency in the doubling rule?

The suffix '-ence' is a derivational suffix, whereas '-ed' is an inflectional suffix, and the doubling rule applies only to inflectional suffixes
The doubling rule is suspended whenever the derived form exceeds three syllables
When stress shifts away from the final syllable of the base word in the derived form, the condition for doubling is no longer met, so the consonant remains single (Correct answer)
Words of Latin origin apply the doubling rule only before suffixes beginning with 'e' or 'i,' not before suffix-initial consonants

Correct answer: When stress shifts away from the final syllable of the base word in the derived form, the condition for doubling is no longer met, so the consonant remains single

The multisyllabic doubling rule (sometimes called the 'accent-on-last-syllable' rule) requires three conditions: the base word ends in one vowel + one consonant, the suffix begins with a vowel, AND the final syllable of the base is stressed. 'Refer' /rɪˈfɜr/ has final-syllable stress → 'referred' doubles correctly. However, in 'reference,' stress shifts to the first syllable /ˈrɛf.ər.əns/, so the final condition is no longer satisfied and the 'r' stays single. This stress-conditioned behavior is a critical teaching point for advanced spellers.

Question 2: Which writing assessment measure captures both productivity AND syntactic complexity in a single score?

Correct word sequences (CWS)
Mean length of T-unit (MLT) (Correct answer)
Words correct per minute (WCPM)
Total number of words (TNW)

Correct answer: Mean length of T-unit (MLT)

Mean length of T-unit averages the number of words per independent clause including its subordinates, capturing both output and complexity.

Question 3: When 'electric' becomes 'electricity,' the final /k/ of the base shifts to /s/. How should a CALT MOST accurately characterize this change for instructional purposes?

This is an inflectional change in which the base vowel undergoes lengthening to signal the nominalized form, similar to the strong verb pattern in Germanic words
This is a purely orthographic change: the letter 'c' represents /s/ before the front vowel in '-ity,' following a standard English spelling rule with no underlying phoneme change
This is an assimilation process identical to the one that produces the /ʃ/ in 'nation,' driven by the palatal quality of the suffix-initial vowel
This is a morphophonemic change (velar softening) in which the phoneme /k/ alternates with /s/ when followed by a Latinate suffix beginning with a front vowel, reflecting a Latin-to-French sound shift preserved in English (Correct answer)

Correct answer: This is a morphophonemic change (velar softening) in which the phoneme /k/ alternates with /s/ when followed by a Latinate suffix beginning with a front vowel, reflecting a Latin-to-French sound shift preserved in English

The /k/ → /s/ alternation before Latinate suffixes beginning with front vowels (-ity, -ious, -ial, -ify) is called velar softening—a morphophonemic rule inherited from Latin and reinforced through Old French. It is phonemic, not merely orthographic: the underlying phoneme /k/ actually changes to /s/ (electric /ɪˈlɛktrɪk/ → electricity /ɪˌlɛkˈtrɪsɪti/). This differs from option A's claim of a purely graphemic rule. CALTs should teach this as a predictable morphophonemic pattern across the Latinate layer: critic/criticism, music/musician, magic/magician.

Question 4: According to Rice and Wexler's Extended Optional Infinitive (EOI) account, which error pattern is MOST diagnostic of an underlying grammatical deficit in tense/agreement morphology, as opposed to dialectal variation or phonological reduction?

Inconsistent marking of BE and DO auxiliaries in finite obligatory contexts while correctly producing non-finite verb forms (Correct answer)
Reduction of consonant clusters resulting in deletion of plural -s and possessive -s in connected speech
Omission of irregular past tense -ed allomorphs (e.g., 'slept' → 'sleep') only on low-frequency verbs
Consistent substitution of simple present for simple past across all narrative contexts

Correct answer: Inconsistent marking of BE and DO auxiliaries in finite obligatory contexts while correctly producing non-finite verb forms

The EOI account holds that children with SLI/DLD treat finiteness morphemes (tense and agreement markers on BE and DO) as optional for a prolonged period. The diagnostic signature is inconsistency in finite contexts — omitting or incorrectly supplying BE and DO where tense is obligatory — while handling non-finite forms (e.g., infinitivals) correctly. This optionality pattern is distinct from dialectal systems, which show systematic (rule-governed) variation, and from phonological reduction, which would affect morphemes regardless of their grammatical function.

Question 5: The standard 'vowel + y' rule states that when 'y' is preceded by a vowel, it is retained unchanged before a suffix (e.g., 'play' → 'played,' 'enjoy' → 'enjoyed'). Which of the following represents a lexicalized exception that violates this pattern and must be taught as irregular?

destroy → destroyed (y retained after vowel 'o')
stay → staying (y retained before a suffix beginning with 'i')
pay → paid (y changes to 'i' despite being preceded by the vowel 'a') (Correct answer)
monkey → monkeys (y retained when forming plurals after a vowel)

Correct answer: pay → paid (y changes to 'i' despite being preceded by the vowel 'a')

The rule 'do not change y to i when preceded by a vowel' holds for the vast majority of English words (play/played, enjoy/enjoyed, destroy/destroyed). However, a small set of high-frequency words — 'pay/paid,' 'say/said,' 'lay/laid,' and 'day/daily' — violate this pattern by changing 'ay' to 'ai' before certain suffixes. These are lexical exceptions preserved from Middle English vowel shift patterns and must be explicitly flagged during Orton-Gillingham and structured literacy instruction as irregular forms, not rule-governed behavior.

Question 6: When a CALT teaches a student that the prefix 'un-' means 'not,' this directly supports which aspect of vocabulary acquisition?

Phonological awareness
Syntactic awareness
Morphological awareness (Correct answer)
Pragmatic awareness

Correct answer: Morphological awareness

Understanding prefixes like 'un-' is a component of morphological awareness, which helps students decode and infer the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Question 7: What role does background knowledge play in reading comprehension?

It enhances comprehension by providing context (Correct answer)
It only affects vocabulary development
It has no impact on comprehension
It hinders the understanding of new texts

Correct answer: It enhances comprehension by providing context

Background knowledge helps readers make connections to the text, fill in gaps, and understand references, thereby improving overall comprehension.

Question 8: A CALT is teaching a student the Latin root 'scrib/script.' Which word group best demonstrates application of this root?

Transcript, describe, scripture, scribble (Correct answer)
Describe, prescribe, inscribe, manuscript
Subscribe, scribble, describe, ascribe
Prescription, describe, scribble, subscript

Correct answer: Transcript, describe, scripture, scribble

Transcript, describe, scripture, and scribble all directly derive from the Latin root 'scrib/script,' meaning to write.

Question 9: Which of the following scenarios represents the MOST appropriate application of the MSL principle of 'diagnostic and prescriptive teaching' during an ongoing intervention?

Using daily drill errors and student self-correction data to adjust the pacing and entry point of each subsequent lesson within the same week. (Correct answer)
Administering a standardized norm-referenced reading battery at the start and end of each academic year to measure annual growth.
Selecting intervention materials rated at the student's instructional reading level as determined by an informal reading inventory.
Referring the student for a psychoeducational evaluation when progress monitoring indicates insufficient response to intervention.

Correct answer: Using daily drill errors and student self-correction data to adjust the pacing and entry point of each subsequent lesson within the same week.

Diagnostic and prescriptive teaching in MSL is an ongoing, lesson-by-lesson process — the therapist continuously analyzes student responses during drills and uses that real-time data to prescribe exactly what comes next in instruction. Annual standardized testing measures outcomes but is not the mechanism of diagnostic-prescriptive teaching. Referral for evaluation and selecting materials by reading level are valuable practices but are not the essence of this MSL principle as applied within active intervention.

Question 10: Which observation is most appropriate to include under 'Behavioral Observations' during testing?

The student subvocalized while reading and frequently lost his place, using a finger to track (Correct answer)
The student's sibling also struggles
The student will probably never read well
The student comes from a difficult home

Correct answer: The student subvocalized while reading and frequently lost his place, using a finger to track

Behavioral observations record test-session behaviors that may affect interpretation of results.

Question 11: A CALT is selecting a reading comprehension intervention for an adolescent with a profile showing strong decoding, adequate vocabulary, but poor monitoring of understanding — specifically, the student does not notice when a passage contradicts itself. Which intervention component directly targets this deficit?

Guided oral retelling using story grammar maps
Repeated reading with prosody modeling
Reciprocal Teaching with an emphasis on self-questioning and clarifying (Correct answer)
Direct instruction in morpheme analysis for complex academic vocabulary

Correct answer: Reciprocal Teaching with an emphasis on self-questioning and clarifying

The deficit described — failure to detect internal contradictions — is a metacognitive comprehension-monitoring failure. Reciprocal Teaching (Palincsar & Brown, 1984) explicitly trains four strategies — predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing — with 'clarifying' directly targeting the recognition and repair of comprehension breakdowns, including contradictions. Repeated reading addresses fluency; morpheme analysis targets vocabulary; story grammar maps support narrative structure, none of which address the metacognitive monitoring deficit described.

Question 12: A CALT is hired by a private school to both provide Structured Literacy intervention to students AND evaluate those same students to determine eligibility for the school's intensive services program. The CALT realizes this creates a dual role. Under ALTA's Code of Ethics, which response best reflects the standard of professional conduct?

The CALT should complete the current evaluations but request reassignment for future cycles once the conflict is identified.
The CALT should proactively disclose the dual role to all stakeholders and ideally arrange for evaluations to be conducted by an independent evaluator to preserve objectivity. (Correct answer)
The CALT may perform both roles provided results are documented separately and parents are informed after evaluations are complete.
The dual role is acceptable because the CALT's intervention experience provides unique insight that enhances the validity of the evaluation.

Correct answer: The CALT should proactively disclose the dual role to all stakeholders and ideally arrange for evaluations to be conducted by an independent evaluator to preserve objectivity.

ALTA's Code of Ethics requires members to recognize and manage conflicts of interest, including dual roles that can compromise objectivity. Serving as both interventionist and evaluator for the same students creates a conflict because the CALT has a vested interest in the outcomes of evaluations that determine their own caseload. The ethical response is transparent disclosure to stakeholders and, where feasible, separating the roles so an independent evaluator conducts eligibility assessments.

Question 13: The 'double-deficit hypothesis' (Wolf & Bowers, 1999) posits two independent core deficits in dyslexia. Neurobiologically, the phonological deficit and the naming-speed (RAN) deficit are dissociable because they map to distinct neural systems. Which pairing best reflects the current neuroimaging evidence?

Phonological deficit → left inferior frontal hypoactivation; RAN deficit → right cerebellar timing circuits
Phonological deficit → angular gyrus semantic integration; RAN deficit → superior frontal working memory networks
Phonological deficit → left parieto-temporal and inferior frontal circuits; RAN deficit → left occipito-temporal 'word form area' automaticity and cerebellar timing networks (Correct answer)
Phonological deficit → bilateral temporal lobe atrophy; RAN deficit → anterior cingulate processing speed circuits

Correct answer: Phonological deficit → left parieto-temporal and inferior frontal circuits; RAN deficit → left occipito-temporal 'word form area' automaticity and cerebellar timing networks

The phonological deficit is associated with dysfunction in left parieto-temporal cortex (supramarginal gyrus, angular gyrus, posterior superior temporal) and left inferior frontal gyrus (Broca's area). The RAN deficit implicates a separate circuit involving the left occipito-temporal cortex (visual word form area) — responsible for rapid, automatic orthographic recognition — and cerebellar timing networks that support the rapid, serial, timed retrieval required for naming tasks. Children with deficits in both systems form the most severe subgroup.

Question 14: When teaching advanced spellers about morphophonological spelling, a CALT explains why 'malign' retains a silent ⟨gn⟩ even though the /g/ is not pronounced — yet in the related form 'malignant,' the /g/ is audible. The MOST accurate principle underlying this orthographic pattern is:

Analogical spelling — 'malign' follows a high-frequency silent-letter neighborhood that learners internalize through exposure
The grapheme-phoneme correspondence system assigns ⟨gn⟩ a null phoneme rule that students must memorize as an exception
Morphological constancy — English orthography preserves the visual identity of morphemes across derivational and inflectional changes, even when surface pronunciation shifts (Correct answer)
Orthographic depth — English is a deep orthography that sacrifices phoneme-grapheme transparency in favor of historical spelling conventions

Correct answer: Morphological constancy — English orthography preserves the visual identity of morphemes across derivational and inflectional changes, even when surface pronunciation shifts

Morphological constancy (also called the morphophonological principle) holds that English spelling preserves the base morpheme's visual form across derived words, even when pronunciation changes. The ⟨gn⟩ in 'malign' is preserved because it is identical to the ⟨gn⟩ that surfaces phonologically in 'malignant,' 'malignancy,' etc. This principle — not orthographic depth per se, analogy, or a discrete exception rule — is the clinically actionable explanation that empowers students to see the spelling as systematic rather than arbitrary.

Question 15: When a CALT teaches the concept of antonyms, synonyms, and homonyms together, this is an example of teaching vocabulary through:

Syntactic context clues
Word relationships and semantic networks (Correct answer)
Phonological patterns
Orthographic mapping

Correct answer: Word relationships and semantic networks

Teaching antonyms, synonyms, and homonyms builds semantic networks by helping students understand how words relate to each other in meaning.

Question 16: In the word 'hope', the Vowel-Consonant-e (VCe) pattern serves what primary function?

It is pronounced as a separate syllable.
It makes the preceding vowel long and is silent. (Correct answer)
It indicates the word is a plural noun.
It makes the 'o' a short vowel sound.

Correct answer: It makes the preceding vowel long and is silent.

The VCe pattern, also known as silent 'e' or magic 'e', signals that the preceding vowel has its long sound. The 'e' itself is silent. This is why 'hop' (short /o/) becomes 'hope' (long /o/).

Question 17: A CALT notices that a student's reading fluency score is significantly below average but their listening comprehension is age-appropriate. This pattern most suggests:

A specific word-level reading deficit consistent with dyslexia (Correct answer)
A hearing impairment
Intellectual disability
A language comprehension disorder

Correct answer: A specific word-level reading deficit consistent with dyslexia

A discrepancy between strong listening comprehension and poor reading fluency indicates the difficulty is specific to word-level decoding rather than general language or intellectual ability.

Question 18: The Floss Rule states that the letters f, l, s, and z are doubled at the end of a one-syllable word after a single short vowel (cliff, bell, grass, buzz). A CALT teaching this rule to an advanced student should explicitly address which of the following genuine exceptions?

'flip,' 'slim,' and 'spin' — words that contain the letters f, l, s but do not end in those consonants and therefore fall outside the rule
'if,' 'is,' 'bus,' and 'gas' — one-syllable words with a short vowel before /f/ or /z/ or /s/ that do NOT follow the doubling pattern (Correct answer)
'off,' 'ill,' and 'add' — words that double the consonant and therefore confirm rather than violate the rule
'class,' 'press,' and 'buzz' — high-frequency words that double the consonant and are therefore exceptions

Correct answer: 'if,' 'is,' 'bus,' and 'gas' — one-syllable words with a short vowel before /f/ or /z/ or /s/ that do NOT follow the doubling pattern

While 'off,' 'ill,' and 'add' follow the Floss Rule, 'if,' 'is,' 'bus,' 'gas,' 'yes,' 'plus,' 'pal,' 'nil,' and 'gel' are established exceptions: all are monosyllabic, end in /f/, /z/, or /s/ after a short vowel, yet do NOT double the final consonant. These high-frequency words — mostly of Anglo-Saxon or Latin origin — must be taught explicitly to prevent overgeneralization. Failing to address them leads students to misspell common words as 'iff,' 'iss,' or 'buss' (though 'buss' is actually a separate archaic word meaning 'to kiss').

Question 19: According to the Simple View of Reading, reading comprehension is the product of:

Fluency plus background knowledge
Phonological awareness plus vocabulary
Phonics instruction plus reading practice
Decoding multiplied by language comprehension (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Decoding multiplied by language comprehension

The Simple View of Reading proposes that Reading Comprehension equals Decoding multiplied by Language Comprehension, meaning both components are necessary for proficient reading.

Question 20: Which recommendation is written most effectively for an IEP team?

Provide explicit, systematic, multisensory structured literacy instruction 4 times weekly, focusing on closed and silent-e syllable types (Correct answer)
The student needs reading help
Try some phonics activities if time allows
Consider whether the student might benefit from something

Correct answer: Provide explicit, systematic, multisensory structured literacy instruction 4 times weekly, focusing on closed and silent-e syllable types

Strong recommendations specify the approach, frequency, and skill targets based on assessment data.

Question 21: Which assessment approach gives a CALT real-time information about a student's current instructional needs during therapy?

Parent interview only
Annual standardized achievement test
School report card grades
Curriculum-based measurement and lesson-embedded observation (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Curriculum-based measurement and lesson-embedded observation

Curriculum-based measurement and ongoing observation during lessons provide immediate, actionable data about student progress and instructional needs.

Question 22: The Orton-Gillingham approach introduces phonogram cards to build automaticity in phoneme-grapheme correspondences. This directly targets which component of fluency?

Oral language expression
Comprehension monitoring
Prosody
Accuracy at the phoneme and grapheme level (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Accuracy at the phoneme and grapheme level

Phonogram card drills build automatic, accurate mapping of sounds to letters, which is the foundation of accurate decoding essential to reading fluency.

Question 23: Why should a therapist avoid relying on grade-equivalent scores when reporting results to parents?

They are often misread as the instructional level and are not on an equal-interval scale (Correct answer)
They can only be calculated for students in grades K-2
They are always more accurate than standard scores
They are required by IDEA in every report

Correct answer: They are often misread as the instructional level and are not on an equal-interval scale

Grade equivalents are frequently misinterpreted and lack equal intervals, so standard scores and percentiles are preferred.

Question 24: When selecting a structured literacy program for a student with severe dyslexia, which program characteristic is most essential according to best practices?

The program must be approved by the student's school district
The program should be systematic, explicit, multisensory, and based on the science of reading (Correct answer)
The program should match the student's grade-level classroom curriculum exactly
The program must use digital technology and gamification

Correct answer: The program should be systematic, explicit, multisensory, and based on the science of reading

Evidence-based structured literacy programs are defined by being systematic, explicit, cumulative, and multisensory, grounded in the science of reading research.

Question 25: An open syllable in English is characterized by:

Ending in a vowel, with that vowel typically making the long sound (Correct answer)
Ending in a consonant blend
Beginning with a vowel
Containing a silent letter

Correct answer: Ending in a vowel, with that vowel typically making the long sound

An open syllable ends in a vowel, leaving it open or unclosed, which allows the vowel to say its long sound as in go, she, and the first syllable in begin.

Question 26: In systemic functional linguistics, which metafunction describes how clauses express actions, events, and participants?

Interpersonal metafunction
Logical metafunction
Experiential (ideational) metafunction (Correct answer)
Textual metafunction

Correct answer: Experiential (ideational) metafunction

The experiential metafunction of Halliday's systemic functional grammar concerns how language encodes processes, participants, and circumstances in clausal structure.

Question 27: An MSL therapist uses a red felt square for vowels and a blue felt square for consonants during phoneme-grapheme tile exercises. What MSL principle does this color-coding support?

Multisensory simultaneous engagement
Diagnostic-prescriptive teaching
Structured, systematic presentation with visual coding (Correct answer)
Alphabetic principle reinforcement only

Correct answer: Structured, systematic presentation with visual coding

Color-coding tiles by phoneme type (vowel vs. consonant) provides a visual structure that reinforces systematic categorization within MSL instruction.

Question 28: The 'floss rule' (also called the doubling rule for /f/, /l/, /s/, /z/) predicts that these consonants are doubled after a single short vowel at the end of a monosyllabic word. A practitioner must also teach the true exceptions to this rule. Which of the following is a genuine exception — a monosyllabic word with a short vowel that violates the expected doubling — rather than a rule-following example?

gas (/ɡæs/ — short vowel + single s) (Correct answer)
cliff (/klɪf/ — short vowel + ff)
fuzz (/fʌz/ — short vowel + zz)
dwell (/dwɛl/ — short vowel + ll)

Correct answer: gas (/ɡæs/ — short vowel + single s)

The floss rule correctly predicts 'cliff' (ff), 'dwell' (ll), 'class' (ss), and 'fuzz' (zz). However, 'gas' — along with 'if,' 'is,' 'has,' 'yes,' 'us,' 'bus,' 'plus,' 'this,' and 'pal' — are genuine orthographic exceptions: they contain a short vowel in a monosyllabic word before /f/, /l/, /s/, or /z/, yet do NOT double the consonant. These words must be explicitly flagged as irregular during structured literacy instruction because no productive rule predicts their single-consonant spelling. Note that 'gas' is particularly instructive because it has a short /æ/ vowel, satisfying every condition of the floss rule except the actual spelling outcome.

Question 29: A CALT conducting a sentence elicitation assessment notes that a student consistently omits the complementizer 'that' in object complement clauses, producing 'She believed he was telling the truth' instead of 'She believed that he was telling the truth.' How should this pattern be scored and interpreted?

As a grammatically acceptable optional deletion — complementizer 'that' is freely omissible in English object complement clauses — and should not be scored as an error (Correct answer)
As evidence of difficulty with clause boundary marking, suggesting the student conflates the matrix and embedded clause structures
As a syntactic error reflecting a complementizer phrase (CP) deficit, warranting targeted intervention on subordinating conjunctions
As a pragmatically inappropriate simplification that violates formal register requirements in academic writing

Correct answer: As a grammatically acceptable optional deletion — complementizer 'that' is freely omissible in English object complement clauses — and should not be scored as an error

In English, the complementizer 'that' introducing object complement clauses (after verbs like believe, know, think, say) is optionally deletable — 'She believed he was telling the truth' is fully grammatical. This is known as 'that-omission' or complementizer ellipsis and is standard in both spoken and written English. Marking this as an error would be a false positive, potentially leading to unnecessary and clinically incorrect intervention. Advanced syntactic knowledge for a CALT includes distinguishing obligatory syntactic elements from optional ones — a critical skill to avoid over-pathologizing normal variation.

Question 30: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies most consistently reveal reduced fractional anisotropy in dyslexic readers within which white matter tract?

Right uncinate fasciculus
Cingulum bundle
Left arcuate fasciculus and superior longitudinal fasciculus (Correct answer)
Corticospinal tract

Correct answer: Left arcuate fasciculus and superior longitudinal fasciculus

Reduced fractional anisotropy—indicating less coherent white matter microstructure—is most reliably found in the left arcuate and superior longitudinal fasciculi in dyslexic readers.

Question 31: A CALT learns through a social media post that a former colleague—also a CALT—is marketing themselves as a 'certified dyslexia specialist' and using intervention approaches that contradict Structured Literacy principles. The colleague's certification lapsed two years ago. Under ALTA's Code of Ethics, what is the most appropriate first step for the CALT?

Immediately report the colleague to ALTA and the state licensing board without any prior contact, as the harm to clients is too urgent to delay.
Attempt to address the concern directly with the colleague first when feasible, and if unresolved, report through appropriate professional channels. (Correct answer)
Confront the colleague directly and threaten to report them unless they stop the practice immediately.
Post a public correction on social media to alert the community to the misleading claims.

Correct answer: Attempt to address the concern directly with the colleague first when feasible, and if unresolved, report through appropriate professional channels.

ALTA's Code of Ethics outlines a professional responsibility to address ethical violations but generally calls for addressing concerns with the individual directly as a first step when it is safe and feasible to do so. If direct resolution fails or is not possible, the CALT should then report through the appropriate channels (ALTA's ethics board, licensing authorities). Bypassing direct contact as the first step or resorting to public shaming conflicts with professional conduct standards.

Question 32: Which of the following is a bound morpheme?

cat
re- (Correct answer)
run
the

Correct answer: re-

A bound morpheme is a unit of meaning that cannot stand alone as a word and must be attached to another morpheme. The prefix 're-' is a bound morpheme, as seen in words like 'replay' or 'redo'. 'Cat', 'run', and 'the' are all free morphemes because they can be words by themselves.

Question 33: A CALT introduces Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) to a high school student studying cell biology. Which scenario represents an INAPPROPRIATE application of SFA for vocabulary development?

Introducing the isolated term 'photosynthesis' as the student's first exposure to any plant physiology vocabulary in the unit (Correct answer)
Differentiating 'virus,' 'bacterium,' 'fungus,' and 'parasite' by cellular structure, reproduction method, and treatability
Comparing mitosis and meiosis across a matrix of features such as chromosome number, cell division count, and genetic outcome
Reviewing previously learned organelles by mapping their features across a shared grid of functions and locations

Correct answer: Introducing the isolated term 'photosynthesis' as the student's first exposure to any plant physiology vocabulary in the unit

Semantic Feature Analysis is a relational instructional tool — its power lies in clarifying distinctions *among* a set of conceptually related words the student has some prior exposure to. Using SFA to introduce a completely isolated term, with no related vocabulary yet established in the student's lexicon, removes the comparative scaffold that makes SFA effective. SFA requires a category of known or co-taught words to compare against; it is not suited as a first-exposure method for standalone novel terms.

Question 34: A CALT is employed by a school district and maintains a small private practice on evenings and weekends. A family whose child receives school-based language therapy from the CALT asks if they can hire the CALT privately for additional sessions. The CALT believes this would genuinely benefit the child. Which action aligns BEST with ALTA's Code of Ethics?

Transfer the child's school-based services to a colleague before accepting the private arrangement.
Decline entirely, since any dual relationship between a school-employed CALT and a school-based client's family is always prohibited.
Disclose the potential conflict of interest fully, review any applicable district policies, obtain appropriate approvals, and ensure the dual relationship does not compromise objectivity or create undue financial pressure on the family. (Correct answer)
Accept the private client immediately, since additional services benefit the child and the family is making a free choice.

Correct answer: Disclose the potential conflict of interest fully, review any applicable district policies, obtain appropriate approvals, and ensure the dual relationship does not compromise objectivity or create undue financial pressure on the family.

ALTA's Code of Ethics does not categorically prohibit dual relationships, but it requires CALTs to recognize, disclose, and carefully manage potential conflicts of interest. Accepting a school client into private practice creates a dual relationship that could compromise objectivity, create financial dependency, or generate conflicts between school-based IEP goals and private goals. The CALT must disclose the conflict, follow district policies (which may require supervisor approval or prohibition), and ensure the family does not feel coerced. An outright ban is too absolute; full disclosure and management is the ethical standard.

Question 35: A student with dyslexia demonstrates strong vocabulary knowledge when words are presented orally but scores significantly below grade level on reading vocabulary assessments. A CALT interprets this profile as MOST likely reflecting which underlying mechanism?

An expressive language delay that prevents retrieval of known word meanings during testing
A receptive language disorder that impairs semantic processing across modalities
A decoding deficit that limits exposure to written text, creating a vocabulary acquisition gap through reduced print encounters (Correct answer)
A working memory impairment that prevents the student from storing new word meanings

Correct answer: A decoding deficit that limits exposure to written text, creating a vocabulary acquisition gap through reduced print encounters

This profile — intact oral vocabulary with depressed reading vocabulary — is classic for a student whose primary deficit is decoding. Because reading is slow and effortful, the student has had far fewer exposures to written vocabulary across years of schooling. This is the 'Matthew Effect': poor decoders read less, accumulating fewer incidental vocabulary encounters from text. The gap is not a semantic processing disorder but a consequence of restricted print access. CALTs must address this by simultaneously building decoding fluency and providing explicit vocabulary instruction.

Question 36: Which component is most essential in a daily structured literacy lesson plan for building automaticity and ensuring long-term retention of skills?

Introduction of at least three new concepts to accelerate progress.
A twenty-minute silent reading period with a book of the student's choice.
A fun, engaging opening game.
Systematic and cumulative review of previously taught skills. (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Systematic and cumulative review of previously taught skills.

While all parts of a lesson are important, the systematic and cumulative review is foundational to the success of structured literacy. This constant spiraling back to previously learned material ensures that skills are solidified, moved to long-term memory, and become automatic for the student, preventing them from forgetting past concepts.

Question 37: Which of the following words contains the Latin root 'spect', meaning 'to see' or 'to look'?

Inspect (Correct answer)
Portable
Disrupt
Admit

Correct answer: Inspect

The Latin root 'spect' means 'to see' or 'to look'. The word 'inspect' means to look into something carefully. The other words derive from different roots: 'portable' from 'port' (to carry), 'disrupt' from 'rupt' (to break), and 'admit' from 'mit' (to send).

Question 38: Research consistently identifies phonological awareness as:

One of the strongest predictors of early reading success and risk for dyslexia (Correct answer)
An insignificant predictor of reading achievement
A skill that develops automatically without instruction
Less important than visual processing for reading development

Correct answer: One of the strongest predictors of early reading success and risk for dyslexia

Decades of research confirm that phonological awareness, particularly phoneme awareness, is one of the strongest predictors of reading achievement and a key indicator of dyslexia risk.

Question 39: The explicit and unambiguous teaching of all concepts with continuous student-teacher interaction is best described by which MSL principle?

Student-led discovery
Direct Instruction (Correct answer)
Cognitive learning
Automated instruction

Correct answer: Direct Instruction

Direct instruction means that the therapist leaves nothing to chance or incidental learning. All concepts, rules, and patterns of the language are taught explicitly and clearly by the teacher, with constant checking for understanding and interaction with the student.

Question 40: A CALT is working with a 10-year-old student who consistently omits the /k/ in consonant clusters (e.g., reads 'ask' as 'as'). Phonological analysis reveals this pattern is exclusive to coda clusters in the final position. Which intervention sequence most precisely targets this phonological deficit?

Begin with auditory discrimination of final clusters in minimal pairs, then progress to blending, segmenting, and finally encoding in isolation before connected text (Correct answer)
Begin with phoneme deletion tasks at the onset position to build awareness, then transfer skills to coda position clusters
Introduce the visual card for /k/ first, then practice blending /k/ with CVC words before moving to final clusters
Use a simultaneous oral spelling routine for all words ending in /sk/ and /st/ clusters immediately to build automaticity

Correct answer: Begin with auditory discrimination of final clusters in minimal pairs, then progress to blending, segmenting, and finally encoding in isolation before connected text

Phonological remediation for coda cluster deletion should begin at the auditory/perceptual level (discrimination), ensuring the student can hear the distinction before being asked to produce or encode it. Minimal pair contrast work (e.g., 'ask' vs. 'as') builds the phonemic representation. This follows the MSL sequence: phonemic awareness → blending/segmenting → encoding in isolation → connected text. Option B skips auditory discrimination entirely. Option C moves directly to encoding without establishing phonemic awareness. Option D targets onset deletion, which addresses a different phonological position than the identified deficit.

Question 41: A student spells 'impatient,' 'illegal,' 'irregular,' and 'impossible' correctly but writes 'inlogical' and 'inpossible' on a different task. Which morphophonological process explains the standard spelling variations of the negative prefix, and what specifically drives it?

Epenthesis — a vowel is inserted between the prefix and root to prevent consonant clusters
Metathesis — the nasal and the initial consonant of the root exchange positions
Assimilation — the prefix adapts its final consonant to match the place of articulation of the following consonant (Correct answer)
Deletion — the nasal consonant is deleted before certain phonemes to ease articulation

Correct answer: Assimilation — the prefix adapts its final consonant to match the place of articulation of the following consonant

The negative prefix 'in-' undergoes assimilation: before bilabials /p, b, m/ it becomes 'im-'; before /l/ it becomes 'il-'; before /r/ it becomes 'ir-'. The nasal consonant shifts its place of articulation to match the following consonant. This is a classic example of progressive assimilation driven by phonological environment, not deletion or insertion of sounds.

Question 42: Which instructional approach would a CALT use to build multisyllabic word decoding skills?

Encouraging students to skip difficult words and re-read for context
Teaching the six syllable types and systematic syllable division strategies (Correct answer)
Having students look up word pronunciation in a dictionary
Focusing on high-frequency word memorization only

Correct answer: Teaching the six syllable types and systematic syllable division strategies

Teaching the six syllable types and division rules (e.g., VC/CV, V/CV) gives students a systematic strategy to decode multisyllabic words independently.

Question 43: A classic line of research (typified by Recht & Leslie, 1988) demonstrated that students classified as 'poor readers' who possessed extensive domain-specific background knowledge outperformed 'good readers' with low background knowledge on a content-area reading comprehension task. For a CALT designing intervention, what is the MOST clinically significant implication of this finding?

Reading comprehension assessments conducted in unfamiliar content domains may systematically underestimate a student's actual comprehension capacity (Correct answer)
Fluency automaticity is less critical to comprehension than previously believed, making fluency intervention low-priority
Decoding instruction should be deprioritized once a student reaches 3rd grade because background knowledge compensates sufficiently
Background knowledge activates phonological pathways that bypass orthographic decoding requirements

Correct answer: Reading comprehension assessments conducted in unfamiliar content domains may systematically underestimate a student's actual comprehension capacity

The background knowledge research reveals that comprehension performance is heavily domain-dependent. A student assessed exclusively on unfamiliar topics (e.g., cricket, organic chemistry) may score far below their true comprehension capacity, yielding a misrepresentative profile. This has direct implications for CALT assessment selection: using only one genre or one content area risks misidentifying a knowledge gap as a comprehension disability. The other choices misapply the finding—decoding remains foundational; fluency instruction is still well-supported; and background knowledge does not reroute phonological processing.

Question 44: A student misspells the word 'definition' because the second vowel sounds like a schwa and provides no phonological cue to its identity. Which instructional strategy most directly leverages the structural consistency of English spelling to resolve this difficulty?

Teach the student to identify the syllable type containing the schwa and apply the vowel associated with that syllable type by default.
Have the student memorize the word as a sight word, because schwa vowels are inherently unpredictable and resist rule-based instruction.
Teach the student to default to spelling schwa as 'e,' since it is the single most frequent schwa spelling in English.
Guide the student to find a morphologically related word in which the same vowel is stressed and phonetically clear, then transfer that vowel letter to the derived form. (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Guide the student to find a morphologically related word in which the same vowel is stressed and phonetically clear, then transfer that vowel letter to the derived form.

Morphological analysis is the most powerful tool for resolving schwa spellings. The vowel in the second syllable of 'definition' is /ə/, but the morphologically related word 'define' places stress on that same vowel (de-FINE), revealing it as 'i.' Similarly, 'competition' → 'compete' exposes the 'e,' and 'mental' → 'mention' exposes the 'e.' This strategy exploits the fact that English orthography preserves morpheme identity across stress-alternating derivational pairs, making the spelling predictable once the base form is identified.

Question 45: A CALT chooses to supplement a standardized phonological awareness battery with a nonword (pseudoword) phoneme segmentation task (e.g., segmenting /frɪb/ or /stæmp/). Compared to real-word segmentation tasks, nonword tasks provide a purer measure of phonological processing primarily because:

Nonwords are inherently more motivating for struggling readers, which increases task effort and yields more representative phonological awareness scores
Nonwords reduce morphological interference, because real words with familiar morphemes allow students to segment by morpheme boundaries rather than by phoneme
Nonwords eliminate the influence of stored lexical-phonological representations, preventing students from relying on whole-word memory rather than phonological processing (Correct answer)
Nonwords are processed by a dedicated sublexical neural pathway that real words do not activate, allowing direct observation of phonological assembly mechanisms

Correct answer: Nonwords eliminate the influence of stored lexical-phonological representations, preventing students from relying on whole-word memory rather than phonological processing

When students segment real words, they can draw on stored whole-word phonological representations in long-term lexical memory — essentially recalling a word they have heard and segmented before — rather than assembling phonemes from scratch. Nonwords have no stored lexical entry, so the student must apply phonological processing skills directly. This makes nonword tasks a more valid measure of phonological processing ability, particularly for identifying students who appear to perform adequately on real-word tasks through lexical compensation but have underlying phonological deficits. This principle also underlies the diagnostic value of nonword reading (pseudoword decoding) in assessments like the CTOPP-2.

Question 46: The ability to understand complex sentences with embedded relative clauses is a:

Higher-level syntactic comprehension skill (Correct answer)
Phonological processing skill
Basic decoding skill
Morphological awareness skill

Correct answer: Higher-level syntactic comprehension skill

Processing embedded relative clauses requires sophisticated syntactic comprehension, holding the main clause in working memory while parsing the embedded clause and then integrating both.

Question 47: Which structural property distinguishes a phrasal verb from a prepositional verb in English?

Prepositional verbs always occur in passive constructions
Phrasal verbs take indirect objects; prepositional verbs do not
Phrasal verbs require an infinitival complement
The particle in a phrasal verb can be separated from the verb by its object (Correct answer)

Correct answer: The particle in a phrasal verb can be separated from the verb by its object

Phrasal verb particles are movable (e.g., 'turn off the light' / 'turn the light off'), while prepositional verbs require the preposition to remain attached to the verb.

Question 48: According to ASHA and IDA definitions, which scenario best exemplifies the distinction between a 'language-based learning disability' and 'dyslexia' as separate but often co-occurring conditions?

A student whose reading difficulties were first identified in third grade after a period of seemingly adequate early literacy acquisition
A student who struggles with phonological decoding and spelling but demonstrates age-appropriate oral vocabulary, listening comprehension, and syntactic understanding (Correct answer)
A student who has difficulty with reading fluency and also shows impaired oral narrative structure and limited morphological awareness in spoken language
A student who reverses letters frequently and reads slowly but scores within the average range on a standardized intelligence test

Correct answer: A student who struggles with phonological decoding and spelling but demonstrates age-appropriate oral vocabulary, listening comprehension, and syntactic understanding

Dyslexia, as defined by the IDA, is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and poor spelling, rooted in phonological processing deficits — with oral language comprehension often preserved. A student showing phonological decoding deficits but intact oral vocabulary and listening comprehension represents a profile consistent with dyslexia specifically, not a broader language-based learning disability (LBLD). Option B describes a student whose difficulties extend to oral narrative and morphological awareness in spoken language, suggesting a broader LBLD profile beyond dyslexia. Options C and D describe common myths (letter reversals as diagnostic, late identification) not specific to the conceptual distinction.

Question 49: The prefix mal- as in malfunction and malnourished comes from Latin and means:

Good
Many
Bad or ill (Correct answer)
Small

Correct answer: Bad or ill

The Latin prefix mal- means bad or ill, contributing a negative sense to words like malfunction and malnourished.

Question 50: A student asks why 'unnatural' is spelled with two n's rather than one. A CALT's most accurate and instructionally precise explanation invokes which orthographic principle?

The FLOSS rule, which requires doubling after a short vowel at the end of a one-syllable word
Morpheme integrity, which preserves the complete spelling of each meaningful unit regardless of adjacent letters (Correct answer)
The closed-syllable rule, which requires a consonant to 'protect' the short vowel in each syllable
Schwa reduction, which causes the second 'n' to become necessary for pronunciation clarity

Correct answer: Morpheme integrity, which preserves the complete spelling of each meaningful unit regardless of adjacent letters

Morpheme integrity dictates that each morpheme retains its full, unchanged spelling when combined with others. 'Un-' always ends in 'n'; 'natural' always begins with 'n.' When joined, both letters are preserved: 'un' + 'natural' = 'unnatural' (double n). This principle explains many doubled letters at morpheme boundaries (e.g., 'misspell' = 'mis-' + 'spell'; 'illegal' = 'il-' + 'legal'). The FLOSS rule is inapplicable here because it governs word-final position in monosyllables, not morpheme-boundary doubling.

Question 51: What type of assessment is commonly used in educational therapy to identify a student's specific learning needs?

Physical fitness test
Visual arts evaluation
Comprehensive psychoeducational assessment (Correct answer)
Standardized multiple-choice tests only

Correct answer: Comprehensive psychoeducational assessment

A comprehensive psychoeducational assessment is commonly used in educational therapy to identify a student's specific learning needs and to develop an effective intervention plan.

Question 52: During the 'New Learning' portion of a lesson, a student is consistently making errors and showing frustration. The most effective immediate action for the therapist is to:

End the lesson early and assign extra homework on the topic.
Move on to the next part of the lesson to avoid further frustration.
Increase the level of scaffolding by providing more direct modeling and breaking the skill into smaller steps. (Correct answer)
Tell the student to try harder and focus more on the task.

Correct answer: Increase the level of scaffolding by providing more direct modeling and breaking the skill into smaller steps.

When a student struggles, the therapist's role is to adjust instruction immediately. Increasing scaffolding—providing more support, direct modeling, breaking the task into smaller steps, and providing corrective feedback—allows the student to achieve success. This is a core tenet of diagnostic-prescriptive teaching.

Question 53: When adding the suffix '-ing' to the word 'begin' (beGIN), the final consonant is doubled to form 'beginning.' However, when adding '-ing' to 'open' (OPen), the result is 'opening' — no doubling. Which orthographic principle governs this difference?

The doubling rule applies to consonants that are voiced (like /n/) only when the preceding vowel is short, regardless of syllable stress.
Consonant doubling occurs whenever the base word contains exactly two syllables and ends in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel.
Consonant doubling applies only to words of Anglo-Saxon origin; 'begin' is Anglo-Saxon while 'open' is Latin, so only 'begin' doubles.
Consonant doubling in multisyllabic words before a vowel suffix is conditioned by stress: the final consonant doubles only when the last syllable of the base word is stressed. (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Consonant doubling in multisyllabic words before a vowel suffix is conditioned by stress: the final consonant doubles only when the last syllable of the base word is stressed.

In multisyllabic words, the final consonant is doubled before a vowel suffix only when stress falls on the final syllable of the base word. 'Begin' is stressed on the second syllable (beGIN), so the 'n' doubles: beginning. 'Open' is stressed on the first syllable (OPen), so no doubling occurs: opening. This stress-conditioned rule distinguishes multisyllabic doubling from the simpler CVC rule applied to monosyllabic words.

Question 54: Which of the following is a key component of the reciprocal teaching approach to reading comprehension?

Summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting (Correct answer)
Direct instruction in phonics
Silent reading
Vocabulary drills

Correct answer: Summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting

Reciprocal teaching is an instructional strategy designed to improve reading comprehension through a dialogue between teachers and students. It involves four key strategies: summarizing (identifying main ideas), questioning (generating questions about the text), clarifying (resolving misunderstandings), and predicting (anticipating what comes next).

Question 55: A student scores at the 60th percentile on phoneme segmentation fluency but at the 9th percentile on a phoneme deletion task requiring deletion of the initial phoneme from consonant-cluster words (e.g., 'play' → 'lay'). What does this discrepancy most likely indicate?

This pattern is diagnostically insignificant; both scores should be averaged to determine intervention need.
Phoneme segmentation fluency norms are inflated and the deletion score is the more valid measure.
The student has adequate phoneme segmentation automaticity but a specific deficit in phonological manipulation tasks that require holding a modified phonological representation in working memory. (Correct answer)
The student has a retrieval fluency strength that masks an underlying phonological representation deficit.

Correct answer: The student has adequate phoneme segmentation automaticity but a specific deficit in phonological manipulation tasks that require holding a modified phonological representation in working memory.

Phoneme segmentation fluency taps procedural, sequential segmentation with a time pressure component, while phoneme deletion—especially from consonant clusters—requires holding the original word representation, identifying the target phoneme, mentally removing it, and reconstructing the remaining sequence. This is a phonological manipulation task with high working-memory demands. Strong segmentation fluency alongside weak manipulation scores is a well-documented profile in students with dyslexia whose segmentation is becoming automatic but whose phonological working memory remains insufficient for complex manipulation. Averaging scores across qualitatively different constructs is clinically invalid.

Question 56: A CALT is teaching a student why 'offer,' 'oppose,' and 'occur' are spelled the way they are. Which explanation MOST accurately describes the morphological phenomenon at work?

The doubling reflects a Latin spelling convention where stressed syllables adjacent to a base-initial consonant are always geminated
The prefix 'ob-' assimilates to match the place of articulation of the following consonant, producing of-, op-, and oc- respectively (Correct answer)
These words contain the prefix 'com-,' which loses its nasal and assimilates fully to the initial consonant of the base
The prefix 'ab-' undergoes vowel reduction before voiced consonants, yielding the doubled consonant pattern seen in these words

Correct answer: The prefix 'ob-' assimilates to match the place of articulation of the following consonant, producing of-, op-, and oc- respectively

The Latin prefix 'ob-' (meaning 'toward, against') assimilates regressively to match the place of articulation of the base-initial consonant: ob- + ferre → offer (bilabial), ob- + ponere → oppose (bilabial stop), ob- + currere → occur (velar). This is the same assimilation process seen with ad-, in-, com-, and sub-, and explaining it etymologically helps students understand why doubling occurs in these Latinate words.

Question 57: Which statement MOST precisely describes a structural difference between Greek and Latin combining patterns that a CALT should teach when introducing polysyllabic vocabulary?

Greek elements typically join with the connecting vowel '-o-' (as in 'biography,' 'photograph'), while Latin elements generally join bases directly or use '-i-' as a linking vowel (as in 'carnivore,' 'agriculture') (Correct answer)
Greek elements always attach with a connecting vowel '-i-,' while Latin elements attach with a connecting vowel '-o-,' making the connecting vowel a reliable layer indicator
Both Greek and Latin elements use '-o-' as a connecting vowel, but Greek compounds always place the connecting vowel after the second element rather than between elements
Greek elements never use connecting vowels because they are all free morphemes that can stand alone in Modern English

Correct answer: Greek elements typically join with the connecting vowel '-o-' (as in 'biography,' 'photograph'), while Latin elements generally join bases directly or use '-i-' as a linking vowel (as in 'carnivore,' 'agriculture')

Greek compound morphology characteristically uses '-o-' as a connecting vowel between elements: bio+o+graphy, photo+o+graph, micro+o+scope. Latin compounds typically connect bases directly (corp+us+cle → corpuscle) or use '-i-' as a linking vowel in compound forms (agr+i+culture, carn+i+vore, omn+i+vore). This distinction helps students identify the etymological layer of a word and predict spelling, since Greek '-o-' linking is highly consistent. Exceptions (e.g., 'ped+i+atrics' using Greek 'pais/paidos') require explicit teaching.

Question 58: A 12-year-old with dyslexia consistently writes 'goed,' 'runned,' and 'swimmed' for past-tense forms. His errors on 'went,' 'ran,' and 'swam' reflect a specific morphological phenomenon distinct from typical over-regularization. Which concept MOST precisely names the underlying challenge with forms like 'went'?

Zero morpheme — the past tense is marked by an absence of overt morphological change
Suppletion — 'went' derives from an etymologically unrelated root (Old English 'wendan'), making the paradigm internally unpredictable (Correct answer)
Allomorphy — 'went' is a phonologically conditioned variant of the '-ed' morpheme
Ablaut — the vowel alternation pattern is a regular Germanic morphophonological process the student has not yet acquired

Correct answer: Suppletion — 'went' derives from an etymologically unrelated root (Old English 'wendan'), making the paradigm internally unpredictable

Suppletion occurs when inflected forms of a word come from etymologically distinct roots rather than from phonological or morphological modification of a single base. 'Went' was originally the past tense of 'wend' (to travel) and was borrowed into the 'go' paradigm; there is no morphological rule connecting 'go' and 'went.' This is qualitatively different from ablaut (e.g., 'run/ran'), where a vowel alternation pattern is at least partially regular across verb classes.

Question 59: Teaching students to use signal words such as although, therefore, and however in writing primarily develops:

Morphological awareness
Syntactic and discourse-level writing skill by marking logical relationships between ideas (Correct answer)
Reading fluency
Phonological awareness

Correct answer: Syntactic and discourse-level writing skill by marking logical relationships between ideas

Signal words mark the logical relationship between clauses and sentences, developing syntactic complexity and cohesion in written expression.

Question 60: Which type of knowledge does a student apply when recognizing that 'unhappy,' 'unkind,' and 'untrue' all share the same prefix meaning?

Orthographic knowledge
Phonological awareness
Morphological awareness (Correct answer)
Syntactic awareness

Correct answer: Morphological awareness

Recognizing shared prefix meaning across words is an application of morphological awareness, the understanding of meaningful word parts.

Question 61: Which brain region acts as a crucial hub for linking the visual representation of a word (graphemes) with its sound structure (phonemes)?

The angular gyrus (Correct answer)
The brainstem
The amygdala
The motor cortex

Correct answer: The angular gyrus

The angular gyrus is considered a critical cross-modal association area. For reading, it plays a key role in integrating visual information from the occipital lobe with phonological information processed in the temporal lobe, effectively 'sounding out' a written word.

Question 62: A CALT notices a student reads slowly but with good accuracy and comprehension. The most appropriate next step is:

Begin phonemic awareness remediation at the isolation level
Focus exclusively on phonics re-teaching from the beginning
Implement repeated reading with a fluency timing chart to build reading rate (Correct answer)
Reduce the reading level to easier texts

Correct answer: Implement repeated reading with a fluency timing chart to build reading rate

When accuracy and comprehension are intact but rate is low, targeted fluency practice such as repeated timed reading addresses the specific gap without unnecessary regression.

Question 63: A student consistently produces sentences like 'The boy who the girl likes runs fast,' omitting the relative pronoun's referential role within the embedded clause. According to Chomsky's Government and Binding theory, which syntactic deficit best characterizes this error pattern?

Failure to assign proper theta-roles within the embedded IP, resulting in an unlicensed trace
Impaired c-command relations between the matrix subject and the embedded clause predicate
Breakdown in the movement of the wh-operator through SPEC-CP, leaving an ungoverned gap (Correct answer)
Overgeneralization of subject-relative clause structure to object-relative contexts, with intact COMP projection

Correct answer: Breakdown in the movement of the wh-operator through SPEC-CP, leaving an ungoverned gap

In object-relative clauses like 'the boy who the girl likes,' the relative pronoun moves from the object position through SPEC-CP. When a student omits or misproduces the pronoun in this configuration, it reflects a breakdown in wh-movement through the complementizer phrase, leaving the extraction site without proper government. This is distinct from theta-role assignment (option A) or c-command relations (option D), which remain structurally intact in relative clause formation.

Question 64: The 'Double-Deficit Hypothesis' of dyslexia posits that an individual's reading difficulty is most severe when they have weaknesses in both:

Visual acuity and auditory processing.
Phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN). (Correct answer)
Executive function and attention.
Working memory and verbal comprehension.

Correct answer: Phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN).

Proposed by Maryanne Wolf and Patricia Bowers, this hypothesis suggests that dyslexia can result from a deficit in phonological awareness, a deficit in rapid naming speed, or a combination of both. The most severe and persistent reading difficulties are seen in individuals who have deficits in both areas.

Question 65: A student reads 'phoneme' as /ˈfoʊnɛm/ with correct prosody and no hesitation but cannot segment it into individual phonemes when asked. Which decoding phenomenon best explains this dissociation?

The student has developed compensatory sight-word recognition that bypasses the phonological route entirely
Orthographic mapping has occurred for the word as a whole unit without full phonemic awareness integration (Correct answer)
The student is using morphological chunking, treating 'phone' and 'eme' as familiar morphemes
This reflects a classic double-deficit pattern where phonological and naming-speed deficits coexist

Correct answer: Orthographic mapping has occurred for the word as a whole unit without full phonemic awareness integration

Orthographic mapping (Ehri's theory) allows words to be stored in long-term memory as mapped units — the student has bonded the written form to its pronunciation without having fully analyzed the phoneme sequence consciously. This is why fluent reading of a word can precede the ability to explicitly segment it, especially in students who learned the word as a whole before receiving structured phonemic awareness instruction.

Question 66: The Question-Answer Relationship strategy teaches students to categorize questions as:

Right There, Think and Search, Author and Me, On My Own (Correct answer)
Easy, medium, and hard
Literal, inferential, and evaluative only
True or false and multiple choice

Correct answer: Right There, Think and Search, Author and Me, On My Own

QAR classifies questions by where the answer is found: Right There for explicit text, Think and Search for text implicit, Author and Me for schema implicit, and On My Own for background knowledge only.

Question 67: According to the Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986), reading comprehension is the product of:

Phonological awareness and vocabulary
Decoding and linguistic comprehension (Correct answer)
Phonics and syntax
Fluency and background knowledge

Correct answer: Decoding and linguistic comprehension

The Simple View of Reading formula states: Reading Comprehension = Decoding × Linguistic Comprehension, meaning both components are necessary for proficient reading.

Question 68: Sentence combining instruction helps students with:

Creating more syntactically complex and varied sentences from simple kernel sentences (Correct answer)
Learning vocabulary definitions
Phoneme deletion tasks
Decoding multisyllabic words

Correct answer: Creating more syntactically complex and varied sentences from simple kernel sentences

Sentence combining teaches students to join simple sentences into more complex structures using conjunctions, relative clauses, and other syntactic devices.

Question 69: In Chall's Stages of Reading Development, the transition from Stage 2 (Confirmation and Fluency) to Stage 3 (Reading for Learning) is characterized by a shift in which cognitive demand?

From implicit phonemic awareness to explicit metalinguistic manipulation of phoneme sequences
From phonological recoding of individual graphemes to recognizing morphemic units within multisyllabic words
From consolidating decoding automaticity using familiar texts to using reading as a tool for acquiring new knowledge from unfamiliar content (Correct answer)
From narrative to expository text comprehension, driven by syntactic complexity increases

Correct answer: From consolidating decoding automaticity using familiar texts to using reading as a tool for acquiring new knowledge from unfamiliar content

Chall's Stage 2 is characterized by reading practice with familiar, controlled texts to build fluency and confirm the alphabetic principle — the primary cognitive demand is automatizing decoding. Stage 3 marks the shift to 'reading to learn,' where texts introduce new, unfamiliar concepts and reading becomes a vehicle for knowledge acquisition. This transition requires not just decoding fluency but vocabulary depth and background knowledge sufficient to process novel content.

Question 70: When an educational therapist conducts an intake assessment, the primary goal is to:

Complete insurance paperwork
Assign a grade level immediately
Identify the student's learning profile, strengths, and specific areas of difficulty to guide intervention (Correct answer)
Determine whether to accept the student

Correct answer: Identify the student's learning profile, strengths, and specific areas of difficulty to guide intervention

Intake assessment creates a comprehensive picture of the student's cognitive, linguistic, and academic profile to inform individualized intervention planning.

Question 71: A CALT is planning sentence-level written language intervention for a student with syntactic weaknesses. Placing instruction in its correct developmental and complexity sequence, which ordering is most appropriate for introducing sentence combining targets?

Compound coordination → adverbial subordinate clauses → embedded relative clauses → nominalization (Correct answer)
Nominalization → embedded relative clauses → adverbial subordinate clauses → compound coordination
Embedded relative clauses → adverbial subordinate clauses → nominalization → compound coordination
Adverbial subordinate clauses → embedded relative clauses → compound coordination → nominalization

Correct answer: Compound coordination → adverbial subordinate clauses → embedded relative clauses → nominalization

The research-supported developmental sequence for syntactic complexity in written language moves from coordination (compound sentences using 'and,' 'but,' 'so') to subordination with adverbial clauses (temporal, causal, conditional) to relative clauses embedded within noun phrases to nominalization (converting verbs/adjectives into noun forms, e.g., 'investigate' → 'investigation'), which represents the highest level of morphosyntactic density. Instruction should follow this progression to build from accessible structures to more complex ones.

Question 72: A CALT is explaining morphological productivity to a supervising teacher. She states that some morphemes are 'highly productive' while others are 'restricted.' Which of the following examples BEST illustrates a highly productive English morpheme, and why?

The prefix 'mal-' (bad), because it is used productively in both everyday and academic English registers
The Greek root 'graph' (write), because it appears across technical, scientific, and academic vocabulary domains
The Latin root 'rupt' (break), because it generates a broad family of high-frequency words including 'disrupt,' 'corrupt,' and 'erupt'
The suffix '-ness,' because it can attach to virtually any English adjective — including novel or invented ones — to form a well-formed noun (Correct answer)

Correct answer: The suffix '-ness,' because it can attach to virtually any English adjective — including novel or invented ones — to form a well-formed noun

In morphological theory, a morpheme is 'productive' when it can attach freely to new or coinable bases to create novel, immediately interpretable words. '-ness' meets this criterion completely: native English speakers readily form and understand words like 'grumpiness,' 'awesomeness,' or even invented forms like 'snarkiness' without prior exposure. 'Rupt,' 'mal-,' and 'graph' occur in existing learned vocabulary but are not freely generative in the same way — you cannot coin new words with them as freely, which makes them restricted rather than productive.

Question 73: When a student with language-based learning disabilities struggles with written composition, their difficulties most often stem from weaknesses in:

Multiple language processing areas including phonology, syntax, and discourse (Correct answer)
Mathematical reasoning
Visual perception only
Fine motor coordination only

Correct answer: Multiple language processing areas including phonology, syntax, and discourse

Written composition difficulties in students with language-based learning disabilities typically reflect weaknesses across multiple levels of language processing, including phonological, morphosyntactic, semantic, and discourse-level skills.

Question 74: A student can blend onset and rime (e.g., /b/ + /at/ = 'bat') but struggles to blend individual phonemes (e.g., /b/ + /æ/ + /t/ = 'bat'). This pattern indicates the student is at which level of phonological awareness development?

Onset-rime awareness without complete phoneme segmentation (Correct answer)
Syllable awareness only
Full phonemic awareness
Phoneme deletion mastery

Correct answer: Onset-rime awareness without complete phoneme segmentation

Onset-rime blending is a less complex skill that precedes full phoneme-by-phoneme blending in the developmental hierarchy of phonological awareness.

Question 75: During a review deck drill, a student correctly reads the word on a card but hesitates for approximately 4 seconds before responding. According to MSL mastery criteria, how should the CALT categorize this response?

Correct — accuracy is the sole criterion for mastery in the review deck
Not yet automatic — the response should be logged as known but the concept returned to the practice deck for continued drill (Correct answer)
Incorrect — any hesitation beyond 1 second indicates the response is not automatic and the card should be retired to practice
Mastered — a 4-second hesitation is within the acceptable range if the student self-corrects immediately

Correct answer: Not yet automatic — the response should be logged as known but the concept returned to the practice deck for continued drill

MSL mastery requires both accuracy AND automaticity. A response taking 4 seconds demonstrates the student is still processing effortfully rather than retrieving automatically. The card should remain in — or be returned to — the practice deck. Automaticity is typically defined as an immediate, unhesitating response (generally within 1–2 seconds). Accuracy alone is insufficient for mastery determination.

Question 76: During the Visual Drill (phonogram cards, sound side up), a student produces the correct sound for a phonogram but states an incorrect keyword. According to the Orton-Gillingham error correction protocol embedded in a structured lesson plan, what is the therapist's most appropriate immediate response?

Prompt the student to self-correct by consulting their personal phonogram reference card
Mark the card incorrect, remove it from the deck, and schedule formal re-teaching at the next session
Accept the response as correct, since accurate sound production is the primary target of the Visual Drill
Provide the correct keyword, have the student repeat it, then re-present the card at the end of the deck (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Provide the correct keyword, have the student repeat it, then re-present the card at the end of the deck

The keyword is not incidental — it forms the critical third link in the multisensory association (letter → keyword → sound). Producing the correct sound without the correct keyword indicates an incomplete linkage. The standard OG protocol is to supply the correct keyword, have the student repeat the complete association, and return the card to the end of the deck for another trial within the same session. Accepting a partial response reinforces an incomplete link, while removing the card entirely is an overcorrection for a single keyword error.

Question 77: Psychophysical research testing the magnocellular (M-pathway) deficit hypothesis in dyslexia predicts impaired sensitivity to which specific stimulus properties?

High spatial frequency, high contrast, static letter stimuli
Low spatial frequency, low contrast, rapidly moving stimuli (Correct answer)
Chromatic differences under photopic (high-luminance) conditions
High-luminance, slow-moving, centrally fixated targets

Correct answer: Low spatial frequency, low contrast, rapidly moving stimuli

Magnocellular neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus are tuned to low spatial frequencies, low luminance contrast, and high temporal frequencies (rapidly changing or moving stimuli). They are largely contrast-insensitive and color-blind. The M-deficit hypothesis predicts — and multiple psychophysical studies confirm — that individuals with dyslexia show selectively reduced thresholds for exactly these low-contrast, low-spatial-frequency, rapidly moving stimuli, leaving parvocellular (high-contrast, static, fine-detail) processing relatively intact.

CALT — Certified Academic Language Therapist

The CALT exam is administered by the Academic Language Therapy Association (ALTA) via Prometric. It certifies practitioners in Multisensory Structured Language Education (MSLE) for individuals with dyslexia and related learning differences.

Questions

120 min

Time Limit

76%

To Pass

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Exam Rules

You can skip questions and return to them later
Flag questions for review before submitting
No feedback shown until you submit the entire exam
Unanswered questions count as wrong — answer everything
10 pretest questions are mixed in and don't affect your score
Timer auto-submits when time runs out
Your progress is auto-saved every 30 seconds

These practice questions were written with AI tools. They are not real exam questions. Exam facts are checked against the official sources listed below. Not reviewed by a subject-matter expert. Editorial policy

Sources & references

Exam facts on this page (fees, format, dates, passing scores) are checked against these official sources; the date is our last check. Editorial policy

altaread.org — Test delivery, fees, exam format, passing score, retake fee, retake policy, score release, test dates, time limit · verified Oct 2026