Academic language therapy helps students who need primary instruction or
    remediation with the English code.  Since the educational experience of
    American students is conducted primarily in the English language, adequate
    language skills are essential for school success.  Academic language therapy,
    therefore, serves as a foundation for lifelong learning.

    Utilizing the multisensory strategies that are the cornerstone of the
    Orton-Gillingham approach, academic language therapy programs are designed
    to meet the needs of those who have auditory and visual processing deficits or
    language-based learning disorders such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, or dysnomia.

    Academic language therapy services may include, but are not limited
    to:

    * phonology and decoding (word attack) skills
     * morphology
     * handwriting  
     * composition  
     * reading fluency and comprehension  
     * writing mechanics
     * spelling  
     * learning strategies
     * study skills
     * exam preparation
     * ACT/SAT preparation


    Students are taught not only the phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters or
    groups of letters) associated with the language, but also the myriad of spelling
    rules governing usage and application.In addition to spelling rules, a thorough
    exploration of Latinate, Anglo-Saxon and Greek word construction is provided.  
    This is an essential element of any English language training system because the
    preponderance of the English language is composed of:

    Latinate word construction (55%), Anglo-Saxon word construction (25%), and
    Greek word construction (11%).  Therefore, it is vital to the development and
    strengthening of visual and auditory processing abilities that the student is able
    to recognize and manipulate:

  1. Latinate prefixes, roots, connectives, and suffixes
  2. Greek combining forms and the connective "o"
  3. Anglo-Saxon prefixes, basewords, and suffixes
What Is Academic Language Therapy (A. L. T.)?
Walter E. Dunson, Jr., Ph.D.
Academic Language Therapist