Sound Approach Learning - Why Orton-Gillingham?

Why Orton-Gillingham?

What makes it click?

Orton-Gillingham lessons engage sight, sound, and touch at the same time, building lasting pathways for reading and spelling. Every lesson is tailored to your child and builds cumulatively, circling back to reinforce what's already been taught.

Principles of the Orton-Gillingham Approach

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Multisensory

Visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile pathways are activated simultaneously to reinforce learning.

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Individualized

Instruction is tailored to the individual student’s learning profile and interests.

Emotionally Sound

Confidence and trust are built by ensuring students achieve regular success. Students are not asked to read, write, or spell anything they have not been explicitly taught.

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Diagnostic and Prescriptive

Lessons are planned around each student's responses, targeting challenges and building on progress.

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Logically Structured

Simple to complex, while circling back to reinforce skills, and flexible to accommodate the learner’s specific needs.

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Cognitive

Students discover correct answers through questioning. They think about why and how to apply the knowledge they are learning.

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Language Based and Alphabetic/Phonetic

Starts with ensuring automaticity in correlation of sounds and letters. Progresses to teachng structure and history of English to anchor understanding of complex words.

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Synthetic and Analytic

Blending parts to the whole for reading.

Segmenting the whole into its parts for spelling.

Graphic of circle divided vertically; on one side a confusing signpost and person scratching their head; on the other side a clear signpost and a person walking confidently in the pointed direction

Direct and Explicit

Concepts are clearly stated, modeled, and practiced.

What is it based on?

Dr. Samuel Orton, a neuropsychiatrist and pathologist, worked closely with Anna Gillingham, a psychologist and educator, to develop the foundation for instruction that is known today as the Orton-Gillingham (OG) Approach.

The OG Approach incorporates time-tested knowledge and practices developed and validated over the past 80 years.

Who is it for?

Anyone can benefit from the OG Approach. It's especially powerful for those who struggle with reading and spelling, including students with dyslexia.

The Orton-Gillingham Academy (OGA) has been awarded AccreditationPLUS by the International Dyslexia Association (IDA).

This means OGA has received IDA accreditation and also produces educators who have engaged in intensive supervised practicum experiences that were sufficiently designed and staffed to promote applied mastery of the principles and practices of structured literacy in the service of preventing reading failure and remediating off-track readers with profiles characteristic of dyslexia.

I have completed my Orton-Gillingham training, and am working through my 100-lesson practicum to earn my Associate-level certification.

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