CALT Exam Prep 2026/2027 Questions & Answers | 150+ Questions | Dyslexia, Phonology, Assessment, Multisensory Structured Language & Reading Science

This comprehensive CALT Exam Prep 2026/2027 study document contains 150+ exam-focused questions, definitions, and answers covering the core knowledge required for Certified Academic Language Therapist preparation and advanced literacy intervention. Major topics include dyslexia, phonetics, phonology, phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, the alphabetic principle, decoding and encoding, fluency, prosody, orthography, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, metalinguistics, grapheme-phoneme relationships, and structured reading instruction. The material distinguishes reading as grapheme-to-phoneme processing from spelling as phoneme-to-grapheme processing and reviews synthetic phonics, blending, rapid letter naming, orthographic memory, automaticity, and guided discovery. A substantial portion focuses on Multisensory Structured Language (MSL/MSLE) instruction and the principles commonly associated with effective dyslexia intervention. Students review structured, direct, explicit, diagnostic, prescriptive, systematic, cumulative, and multisensory VAKT instruction. The document contrasts bottom-up, top-down, interactive, analytic, and synthetic approaches to reading and explains how carefully planned Socratic questioning can support guided discovery. It also covers decodable text, controlled reading and spelling vocabulary, automaticity, and professional organizations including the Academic Language Therapy Association (ALTA) and International Multisensory Structured Education Council (IMSLEC). The document provides extensive examination material on English language structure and word origins. Students review Anglo-Saxon, Latin, French, and Greek influences on English vocabulary; common orthographic clues associated with each language layer; the Norman Invasion; digraphs, trigraphs, quadrigraphs, diphthongs, combinations, and code marks; and closed, open, vowel-consonant-e, vowel-team, r-controlled, and final stable syllable patterns. Morphology coverage includes bases, roots, prefixes, suffixes, affixes, free and bound morphemes, inflections, derivational suffixes, Greek-derived morphemes, and derivational complexity. Assessment is another major component. The resource explains intelligence, achievement, norm-referenced, criterion-referenced, standardized, curriculum-based, formal, informal, screening, progress-monitoring, diagnostic, and outcome assessments. Specific measures include DIBELS, TPRI, PALS, WRAT, Woodcock-Johnson, CTOPP, GORT, WISC, Stanford-Binet, and Conners Rating Scales. Students also review formative versus summative data, pseudowords, grade-equivalent scores, cognitive assessment, composite and derived scores, and the relationship between continual assessment and diagnostic teaching. Dyslexia and the history of reading research receive detailed attention. The material discusses strephosymbolia, developmental dyslexia, dysgraphia, phonological deficits, and related learning difficulties while reviewing contributions from Rudolf Berlin, James Hinshelwood, W. Pringle Morgan, Samuel Orton, Anna Gillingham, Isabelle Liberman, Keith Stanovich, Hugh Catts, Bonita Blachman, Joe Torgesen, Jean Chall, Kenneth Goodman, Frank Smith, and G. Reid Lyon. The National Reading Panel's five critical components—phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension—are also included alongside NICHD research and the historical debate between phonics and whole-language approaches. The later sections also cover Chall's Six Stages of Reading, progressing from pre-reading and oral-language development through initial decoding, confirmation and fluency, reading to learn, multiple viewpoints, and construction/reconstruction. Additional concepts include cognition, auditory processing, accommodations, attention, accuracy, dyslexia-related disorders, professional ethics, handwriting instruction, and the Great Vowel Shift. Together, these topics make the resource useful for comprehensive CALT exam review rather than isolated vocabulary memorization. This document is particularly relevant for CALT certification candidates, Certified Academic Language Therapist trainees, dyslexia therapists, structured literacy practitioners, reading specialists, literacy interventionists, special education teachers, educational diagnosticians, elementary educators, speech-language and literacy professionals, and students studying reading science, dyslexia intervention, literacy education, special education, or language development. The uploaded document does not identify a specific university or formal course code, so those details are marked as unspecified rather than adding unsupported information. 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