Orton-Gillingham

Orton-Gillingham Specialized Tutoring

In the 1930’s neurologist Dr. Samuel T. Orton and educator, psychologist Anna Gillingham developed the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction for students with dyslexia. This theory combines multi-sensory techniques along with the structure of the English language. Those items taught include: phonemes and morphemes, such as prefixes, suffixes, and roots. Common spelling rules are introduced as well. Multi-sensory education incorporates the three learning pathways, which are: auditory, kinesthetic, and visual. This approach is beneficial not only for students with dyslexia, but for all learners. It can be implemented in a large group setting as well as with individuals, small groups and at-risk populations. The approach allows for implementation of Response to Intervention (RTI) at all levels while allowing for differentiation of instruction.

Often Orton-Gillingham is interpreted as an approach only meant for reading remediation; however, the multi-sensory component impacts all children. The uniqueness of this type of instruction is that it allows the educator to capitalize on an individual student’s dominant learning modality while delivering instruction that will strengthen the remaining learning pathways.

The Orton-Gillingham Approach to reading is:

Multisensory

It engages all of the brain’s learning pathways (sight, sound, touch and motion) simultaneously.

Structured

It progresses logically from the most basic material to the more challenging; learning builds cumulatively with diligent practice and frequent review.

Individual

It is designed to meet the unique learning needs of the individual student. It may be used one-on-one or in small-group teaching.

Direct

It is explicit: rules are explained, goals are set and the learner works toward specific benchmarks.

Synthetic and Analytic

It helps the learner understand and apply the rules of language: how the parts of language work together to form a whole and how the whole can be broken down into its various parts.

The Orton-Gillingham Approach emphasizes:

Phonology

Phonemes are the smallest distinct units of sound in a language; phonological awareness is essential to the ability to read.

Sound-Symbol Association

Helping the reader make the association, both by sight and by ear, of phonemes with their letters or combinations of letters.

Syllables

The six basic types of syllables and the rules that control word structure.

Morphology

Just as a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound, a morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning. This includes the study of base words, roots, prefixes and suffixes.

Syntax and Semantics

The rules that govern how words work together to convey meaning, including grammar, sentence structure and written language.

At Servidio Education Solutions, we make sure that reading comprehension and fluency are addressed as part of the program. We have found that many Orton Gillingham programs tend to ignore comprehension and fluency and that becomes a bigger issue down the road for students as they are finally able to catch up on their decoding skills but are then behind on other reading skills. It is our mission to break that cycle and help your child to become a well rounded reader.

Orton-Gillingham works because:

Students are able to understand the relationship between words and sounds.
Students explicitly learn spelling rules and when to apply them.
Students are able to decode words for reading.
Students learn to encode words for writing.
Students move on when they have mastered a skill instead of moving on by an arbitrary deadline that someone in the school has set.