This course prepares  candidates for certification as Academic Language Practitioners (aka Licensed Dyslexia Practitioners).

Language Foundations (also known as “Structured Language Basics – SLB) is an Orton-Gillingham based multisensory approach to teaching reading-language arts skills in an inclusive classroom.  This curriculum is equally successful with elementary, secondary, and adult students for whom reading and spelling present significant problems.  More importantly, the use of Language Foundations in the primary grades can act as a preventative measure for difficulty with reading and spelling in the later grades. 

Language Foundations provides the fundamental reading skill requirements that assist every student to read by the end of third grade:  phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary,spelling, and comprehension. As determined by the Federal National Reading Panel report in 2000, these skill areas must be delivered through explicit, structured and systematic methods. These methods are the hallmark of Language Foundations.

Over 9,000 teachers have been trained in Language Foundations (LF) with research indicating substantial improvement among students receiving LF instruction.  Teachers deliver a scripted curriculum of 125 multisensory lessons that provide instruction in reading, spelling, grammar, handwriting and composition. In addition, teachers receive a full kit of instructional materials. Teachers are not required to make additional instructional materials.

Key Program Elements:

• An initial phonemic awareness, phonics, reading, spelling curriculum for first grade students,
• An initial or remedial phonemic awareness, phonics, reading, spelling curriculum for second grade and above, as well as adult literacy needs,
• A curriculum which can be used in the inclusive instructional situation in all environments,
• A scripted curriculum which does not require extensive background knowledge from the instructor,
• Practice and repetition for each new element taught in the lessons,
•  Assessment approximately every fifteen lessons which enables teachers to track student success,
• A decodable story based on the graphemes presented in each lesson with comprehension and multiple choice questions,
• 44 sounds and 98 spellings introduced in the first 100 lessons,
• Prefixes, suffixes, Greek affixes and stems included in curriculum,
• Grammar and composition instruction embedded in curriculum, and
• Each activity in the curriculum involves visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic channels.

Training Materials Include:

• Structured Language Basics Teacher Manual & Resources:
• • Student Manipulatives
  • Grammar Deck
  • Primary Reading Deck
  • Advanced Reading Deck
  • Spelling Deck
  • Sequencing Deck
  • Syllable Division Deck
  • Sight Word Deck
  • Prefix Deck
  • Root Deck
  • Suffix Deck
  • Attribute Cards
  • Schedule
  • Story Graphs

Manipulatives:

Student Kits:

Next Course:  August 13-17, 2018

Where: ASDEC, 22 West Jefferson Street, Rockville, MD

Course Fee: $800

Materials: $470 (includes shipping). This comprehensive kit includes all materials needed for classroom instruction.

Registration Now Open

Graduate Credit: Available for an additional fee from Trinity University

Upon completion of the practicum, candidates are eligible to sit for the Alliance National Exam, which qualifies them as a Certified Academic Language Practitioner (CALP). The denotation of CALP identifies the individual as a member of the Academic Language Training Association (ALTA) and verifies that the individual has achieved the Teaching level of competency in the field of dyslexia education. Click here for certification requirements.