More About the Orton Gillingham Approach

 

  • Directly teaching each concept in order through a process where students are led to discover for themselves each of the sounds, spelling rules, or meanings of word parts. No matter your student’s age we start and the beginning and make sure they have a solid foundation. We move as quickly through the concepts as possible, but as slowly as is necessary for your student to demonstrate mastery.

  • We use touch, sight, and sound to help your student’s brain make the necessary connections between sounds and letters as well as word parts and their meanings.

  • Students learn new concepts and then practice those new concepts with continuous feedback. They then continue to review them as many times as necessary until mastery is demonstrated. Because students are not asked to read words with concepts that have not yet been introduced to them, they are successful in their lessons. This leads to increased confidence, which in turn leads to greater success.

  • The scope and sequence of the Orton Gillingham approach begins with the basics of letter-sound correspondence and the phonological awareness necessary to identify and manipulate speech sounds. Concepts build from simple to complex. As sessions progress, students learn letter combinations and the sounds they represent as well as prefixes and suffixes. Later in the process, students learn how to determine the meaning of more complicated words with Latin and Greek roots.

  • The student’s verbal and nonverbal responses are monitored and analyzed to give immediate feedback and inform lesson planning. Lessons are based on student progress and problems.