Reading Launch Pad

 What is Orton

 Gillingham?

The Orton Gillingham Approach is a best-practice, multi-sensory method used to teach struggling readers, particularly those with dyslexia, auditory processing and speech difficulties, to become successful readers. It is known as the “gold standard” for remediating reading, writing and spelling challenges. O.G. has been around since the 1930’s and is still used today because it works! Orton Gillingham is named after its creators, Dr. Samuel Orton, a neuropsychiatrist, and Anna Gillingham, a teacher. Orton’s main area of research was studying children with language processing disorders. He was intrigued with how they learned best. Orton teamed up with Gillingham to use his findings to craft a reading instruction approach that would work for these unique individuals.

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What makes O.G. "work"?

The Orton Gillingham Approach follows a specific scope and sequence. Each lesson focuses on a specific, targeted skill. The lessons are tailored to build on a student’s knowledge and to reinforce recently learned concepts until they are mastered. Even once mastered, concepts are reviewed until they become part of your child’s long-term memory. Each of the 44 phonemes (sounds) is explicitly taught, in addition to spelling rules, decoding strategies, syllable types and morphology (how words are composed of base words/roots and affixes).

In addition to repetition, O.G. incorporates multi-sensory activities, so that your child learns a skill using all pathways. Multi-sensory lessons utilize hearing (auditory), seeing (visual), touching (tactile) and moving (kinesthetic) to strengthen the connections to the brain. In addition, I continually observe your child’s progress to plan for the next lesson. We will move as quickly as possible through the scope and sequence, but as slowly as you child needs to master each new concept.

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What if my child isn’t dyslexic, but is struggling with one area of reading or writing?

Private tutoring can address areas of literacy where there seems to be a weakness. We will focus on bridging the gap, so your child improves as quickly as possible. I also work with families who have a specific goal, such as improving essay writing skills to prepare for high school. The beauty of private tutoring is that I tailor fit it to your child’s needs, whatever those may be, to help guarantee success.

 

What is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is an unexpected difficulty in reading in an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader. It affects one’s ability to read, spell, write and speak, yet there is no correlation to one’s overall intelligence. In fact, despite these challenges, people with dyslexia are often perceptive, quick-witted, creative thinkers who come up with unique ways to solve problems.

A lot more goes into reading than one might think. Our brains must be able to connect the appropriate sounds to letters, blend these sounds together and then connect the words into sentences and paragraphs. While doing all of this, we must also make sense of and comprehend what we’ve just read.

People with dyslexia have difficulty retrieving the sounds that go along with the letter(s) one sees on the page. This makes all of the other steps more difficult. Someone with dyslexia might read the word "cat" as "tac." Mix ups like this, make learning to read a slow and difficult process. Dyslexia doesn’t affect everyone the same way and there are varying degrees. Although there is no cure for dyslexia with the right supports, dyslexic individuals can become highly successful!

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