100+ Free ALTA Competency Exam (CALT) Practice Questions

Language Development (Standard 1)

The continuum of language skills from oral to written and from receptive to expressive, stages of receptive and expressive oral and written language, identifying appropriate remediation for atypical development, similarities and differences between oral and written language, and the three components of phonological processing (phonological awareness including phonemic awareness, phonological working memory, and naming speed/retrieval) and their importance to literacy.

Structural Linguistics (Standard 2)

Phonology and articulatory gestures, phoneme-grapheme and phoneme-morpheme distinctions, the alphabetic principle and sight-word recognition, the six syllable types and syllable-division patterns, accent placement, morphology and orthography including roots, affixes, spelling rules, and etymology, syntax and punctuation, semantics and pragmatics, comprehension strategies, text structures, and the nature of written language including handwriting and the writing process.

Dyslexia and Related Disorders (Standard 3)

Defining dyslexia and its impact on instruction, brain anatomy and the reading network, neurological aspects of learning disabilities, behavioral and social-emotional issues, comorbid disorders such as AD/HD, dysgraphia, processing disorders, and speech-language disorders, historical pioneers including Orton and Gillingham, the relationship between executive function and dyslexia, and relevant research.

Psychoeducational Assessment (Standard 4)

Essential assessment terminology and the purposes of formal and informal assessments, the components of a dyslexia evaluation, the relevance of informal tools, characteristics and uses of formal and informal instruments, interpreting standard scores, percentiles, and stanines, conducting error analyses of work samples, and using results to provide appropriate services.

Diagnostic and Prescriptive MSL Strategies (Standard 5)

Simultaneous multisensory visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile (VAKT) strategies, systematic and cumulative instruction, synthetic versus analytic and direct versus indirect instruction, the importance of automaticity, diagnostic teaching, the necessary content and principles of MSLE programs, metacognition, appropriate learning environments, and theoretical models such as the Simple View of Reading and Scarborough's Rope.

Federal Laws (Standard 6)

Differences among federal disability laws, professional conduct and advocacy under IDEA, Section 504, and the ADA, federal eligibility guidelines, interpreting documentation and data for educational decisions, recommending appropriate accommodations, and the historical development of disability law.

Professional Ethics (Standard 7)

Knowledge of the ALTA Code of Ethics, including confidentiality and the release of student records, practicing within one's scope of training and competence, and the honest, accurate representation of credentials and the benefits of services.

Professional Communication (Standard 8)

Evaluating professional, comprehensive written student reports, choosing objective word choices to describe student strengths and weaknesses, and judging appropriate versus inappropriate communication with parents, students, and colleagues.