Advanced Multisensory Language Foundations: Take Flight

Course Title: Advanced Multisensory Language Foundations: Take Flight

Course Description : Structured Multisensory Language Foundations (SMLF) is a two-year program designed for persons who aspire to become Certified Academic Language Therapists. Through this intensive Structured Literacy program, participants gain the knowledge, resources and experience necessary to teach students with dyslexia how to read, write and spell. This Advanced year begins with ten additional lecture/written assignment/practica sessions over a two-week period. During the school year, participants complete an additional 350 self-arranged practicum hours, attend four additional lecture/written assignment/practica sessions on Saturdays, and present five additional demonstration lessons. The 350 practicum hours are to involve three individuals or groups with whom work began in the Introductory year plus at least one additional individual or group with whom work begins at the beginning of the current school year. At the end of a 2-year period participants who have met all course requirements---28 lecture sessions, all written assignments, 10 demonstration lessons and 700 practicum hours---may sit for the Alliance National Registration Exam at Payne Education Center to earn the credential of Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT).

Objectives: At the end of this course, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the foundational concepts involved in oral and written learning.

2. Demonstrate knowledge of the structure of language, including phonology, orthography, morphology, semantics, syntax, and discourse organization.

3. Demonstrate the ability to teach phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, fluent reading of text, vocabulary, text comprehension, handwriting, spelling and written expression.

4. Interpret and administer assessments for planning of instruction.

5. Identify characteristics of dyslexia in relation to other reading problems and learning difficulties.

6. Explain and demonstrate through practice ethical standards for therapists.

Delivery: Face to Face with formal observations

Hours: 350+ Practicum Hours

Competencies:

Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading (IDA, 2018)

Standard 4: Structured Literacy Instruction

Essential Principles and Practices of Structured Literacy

4A.1 Understand/apply in practice the general principles and practices of structured language and literacy teaching, including explicit, systematic, cumulative, teacher- directed instruction.

4A.2 Understand/apply in practice the rationale for multisensory and multimodal language-learning techniques.

4A.3 Understand rationale for/adapt instruction to accommodate individual differences in cognitive, linguistic, sociocultural, and behavioral aspects of learning.

Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

4B.6 Know/apply in practice considerations for the principles of phonemic awareness instruction: brief, multisensory, conceptual, articulatory, auditory-verbal.

4B.1 Understand rationale for/identify, pronounce, classify, and compare all the consonant phonemes and all the vowel phonemes of English.

4B.3 Understand/apply in practice considerations for phoneme awareness difficulties.

4B.5 Know/apply in practice considerations for the general and specific goals of phonemic- awareness instruction.

Phonics and Word Recognition

4C.1 Know/apply in practice considerations for the structure of English orthography and the patterns and rules that inform the teaching of single- and multisyllable regular word reading.

4C.2 Know/apply in practice considerations for systematically, cumulatively, and explicitly teaching basic decoding and spelling skills.

4C.3 Know/apply in practice considerations for organizing word- recognition and spelling lessons by following a structured phonics lesson plan.

4C.7 Know/apply in practice considerations for systematically teaching the decoding of multisyllabic words.

Automatic, Fluent Reading of Text

4D.1 Know/apply in practice considerations for the role of fluent word-level skills in automatic word reading, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, and motivation to read.

4D.2 Know/apply in practice considerations for varied techniques and methods for building reading fluency.

Listening and Reading Comprehension

4F.1 Know/apply in practice considerations for factors that contribute to deep comprehension.

4F.4 Know/apply in practice considerations for the use of explicit comprehension strategy instruction, as supported by research.

Written Expression:

4G.2 Know/apply in practice considerations for research-based principles for teaching letter formation, both manuscript and cursive.

4G.3 Know/apply in practice considerations for research-based principles for teaching written spelling and punctuation.

Standard 5: Professional Disposition and Practices

5.1 Strive to do no harm and to act in the best interests of struggling readers and readers with dyslexia and other reading disorders.

5.8 Support just treatment of individuals with dyslexia and related learning difficulties.

Micro-credential Review Process:  

Credentials Unlimited follows a rigorous process to approve the micro-credential, ensuring it aligns with high standards in literacy education. The process begins with mapping the course's assessment or outcome product to the Knowledge and Practice Standards for the Teachers of Reading (IDA, 2017), conducted by literacy experts. This ensures that the course content is aligned with the most current and effective literacy practices. Additionally, an online quality review of the professional development course is completed by a trained Credentials Unlimited team member. This review provides constructive feedback to the course developer, focusing on improving the course, rather than rating it. Literacy experts from Credentials Unlimited also thoroughly review the course content to ensure it meets the expectations and standards of the Science of Reading or Structured Literacy. This comprehensive process guarantees that every micro-credential supports high-quality, evidence-based literacy instruction.