Academic Language Therapy and the Science of Reading

s an intensive training program for individuals seeking to learn the most effective, research-based strategies of remediation in reading and written language skills. ALT provides a two-year, in-depth training which prepares therapists to work with individuals with reading challenges, focusing on dyslexia and related disorders. 

When: July 14 – August 1, 2025
Where: Colorado Springs, CO
Early Registration Deadline: 4/15/2025 – $200 Discount on Course Fees!
Final Registration Deadline: June 1, 2025

Cost:

  • Course Fee: $5,500 ($5300 for early registration)
  • Curriculum: $800
  • Textbook: $85
  • Activity Book: $35
  • Additional Materials: $100

“The person who does things differently is the one who changes the world.”
— Steve Jobs

Coursework

Coursework includes  instruction in Take Flight: A Comprehensive Intervention for Students with Dyslexia, an Orton-Gillingham research-based and validated curriculum from the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia at Scottish Rite for Children. Through this READ Act-approved curriculum, trainees will gain an understanding in:

  • Structures of written English based upon the science of literacy and linguistics
  • Instructional strategies and methods (simultaneous, multisensory, systematic, cumulative, direct instruction, diagnostic teaching, synthetic, and analytic instruction)
  • Dyslexia, related written-language disorders, and identification of specific learning differences
  • Progress monitoring for accuracy and fluency

​Upon completion of classroom instruction, demonstration lessons, supervised clinical experience, and the competency exam, an individual may earn professional membership status as a Certified Academic Language Practitioner (CALP) or, after sufficient clinical teaching hours, a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT).​​​ Individuals completing coursework and sufficient teaching hours and observations may be approved to register and sit for the Academic Language Therapy Association (ALTA)

ALT Enrollment Requirements

A bachelor’s degree, letter of intent, two letters of recommendation, and attendance at an informational session are required to enroll.

ALT Informational Sessions

Before enrolling, individuals must attend an informational session. The session will detail the program’s curriculum and course requirements as well as national certification eligibility from ALTA.

ALT is accredited by the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC) and the International Dyslexia Association (IDA). CLLC is recognized by the Colorado Department of Education as a professional development provider.

New Courses Coming to Colorado Springs and Castle Rock Winter 2025!

Jet: A Fast Paced Reading Intervention

A one-year curriculum for individuals with dyslexia fourteen years and older.

Upcoming Course: 3/7/25 9am – 4pm

Turbo Start: A Dyslexia Curriculum for Newly Identified Students with Dyslexia

A nine-week, evidence-based dyslexia intervention that can be used as part of a standard protocol dyslexia instruction program

Build: A K-1 Early Reading Intervention

For K-1 students who have been identified at risk for dyslexia.

Additional Courses Available

Most courses can be customized. Requirements include providing a location and audio/visual equipment. Six-person minimum per course. For more information please Contact Us.

Parents and educators in Colorado are speaking out that it’s time to identify students with characteristics of dyslexia and provide the appropriate instruction. Although Colorado public schools do not assess or diagnose dyslexia, the identification of students with characteristics of dyslexia is sufficient to plan and implement reading intervention for those students. Most Colorado schools have procedures in place through the READ Act or MTSS framework to support screening. Now we must get to identification and provide intervention!

CLLC offers a seminar for educators responsible for administering tests and performance measures, interpreting assessment results to identify students with a profile of dyslexia, and recommending specific instructional intervention. This seminar will highlight:

  • Understanding the definition of dyslexia and its importance in the identification of a profile of dyslexia.
  • Identifying a profile of dyslexia.
  • Reviewing case studies of student profiles both with and without dyslexia
  • Recognizing co-morbid disorders including ADHD.
  • Making appropriate intervention decisions.
  • Case studies may be submitted by those attending.

Letters are the springboard for reading. Beginning readers must be able to quickly identify letters before they can begin to recognize familiar letter sequences. Not only does research support that letter naming be accurate, but it must also be rapid. Letter identification must be effortless. Teachers who provide literacy instruction must understand the underlying principles and terminology of effective alphabet instruction and decoding.

Our seven hour Alphabet/Beginning Phonics uses an Orton-Gillingham approach providing teachers with multisensory methods which focus on:

  • Rapid association of letter symbols with names and sounds
  • Principles of effective instruction and Socratic questioning
  • Teaching to automaticity and early identification and intervention

Audience:

  • Pre-k through 2nd grade
  • Intermediate Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventionists
  • Special Education staff

– 6 CEUs
– CDE READ Act funds apply

This course is designed for teachers who desire a strong foundation in scientifically based reading research from which to make judgments about what to teach and how to teach it. Course content is designed to produce successful outcomes for all students and is especially important for those working with students at risk of failing to learn to read or with those who have already fallen behind.

Topics covered include oral language development, phonemic awareness, systematic phonics, orthography, handwriting, fluency, comprehension, morphology, history of the language, dyslexia, and assessment. Components of effective instruction will address environmental, cultural, and social factors impacting student performance.

Rite Flight is a research-based classroom fluency and comprehension program from the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children (TSRH). This program can be used as supplemental or intervention instruction by classroom teachers, reading specialists, and special education teachers, and utilized in conjunction with a variety of core curricula that employ evidence-based components in phonemic awareness and phonics. Data collected through TSRH demonstrates clinically significant improvements in reading rate on curriculum-based and standardized measures. Rite Flight Comprehension may also be used for more intensive instruction within the framework of a Response-to Intervention (RTI) model of reading instruction.

  • Progress monitoring included.
  • Training takes about 6 hours.
  • CE credit is available.
  • In addition to a course fee, there is also a curriculum fee (may be shared by teachers within building)

Research demonstrates a strong link between children’s early abilities in phonemic awareness and their later reading skills. Struggling readers are apt to have phonological processing deficits that are causal to their word-reading deficits. Extensive meta-analysis demonstrates the powerful effect of phonemic awareness training on reading and spelling, especially when the prevention and early remediation occurs during Pre-K through 2nd grade.

Our ten hour Introduction to Phonemic Awareness uses an Orton-Gillingham approach by providing teachers with multisensory methods.

  • The structure of sounds, syllables, words, and sentences
  • Engaging, playful and highly effective for teaching phonemic awareness, metacognitive strategies and listening skills
  • Accelerated reading and writing growth of entire classroom
  • Reduced incidence of children with reading delays

Participants will leave with both teacher and student materials to be used immediately.

Audience:

  • Pre-K through 2nd grade teachers
  • Intermediate Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventionists
  • Special Education staff

– 10 CEUs (1.5 day training)
– CDE READ Act funds apply

“Dyslexia isn’t a barrier to achievement—it’s a different path to success.”

“Dyslexia isn’t a barrier to achievement—it’s a different path to success.”

— Henry Winkler