Does your child struggle with reading? Do they have difficulty sounding out words, reading with fluency, or spelling accurately? If so, your child may benefit from Orton Gillingham tutoring. What is this approach exactly?
Orton Gillingham
The Orton Gillingham approach is a structured, research-based, multi-sensory method for helping students develop their reading, spelling, and writing skills. It is diagnostic, prescriptive, and catered to each student’s individual needs and levels. Orton Gillingham tutoring integrates all aspects of reading - including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension - along with spelling and writing instruction.
Initial assessment
Before starting Orton Gillingham tutoring, your child should begin with an initial assessment to gauge their specific needs. They should be assessed on phonemic awareness skills such as rhyming, initial sound recognition, final sound recognition, and blending; letter/sound identification; and reading and spelling words continuing consonant-vowel-consonant patterns, blends, consonant digraphs, vowel digraphs, silent e patterns, r-controlled patterns, and multi-syllabic word patterns. Once the assessment is completed, an individualized Orton Gillingham lesson plan can be created.
Orton Gillingham tutoring lessons
Orton Gillingham lessons typically start by reviewing previously taught sounds and concepts. This might include audio-visual card drills, letter and word writing, and reading words containing previously taught patterns. Next, a new sound or concept should be introduced, and the student should be given ample practice and repetition with this new concept. Students should also spell several words and sentences containing the new concept, and they should end with oral reading, ideally with a controlled, decodable text. Multisensory tools should be integrated into the Orton Gillingham tutoring sessions, such as colored sand, magnetic tiles, mini white boards, and shaving cream.
Sample Orton Gillingham tutoring lesson
While Orton Gillingham tutoring lessons will vary from student to student based on their needs, an example might be as follows:
If a young child is learning individual letters and sounds, the Orton Gillingham tutor might begin with an audio-visual card drill containing the letter and its corresponding sound. For example, they might hold up a card with an f on the front and a picture of a fish on the back. They would say aloud to the student, “This is the letter f, like fish, it makes the sound /f/.” The student would then repeat that sequence back and say it out loud three times independently. Next, the Orton Gillingham tutor would model tracing the letter in the air for the sky writing step. They would say the formation out loud as they trace it, like, “When we write the letter f, we move around, down, and across.” The student would then write the letter in the sky with the Orton Gillingham tutor and then three times on their own. They would then trace the letter in colored sand or shaving cream, first with the Orton Gillingham tutor and then on their own. Next, they might complete workbook exercises where they practice writing the letter several times and identifying pictures that start with the sound they are learning. After learning a series of letters and at least one short vowel sound, they would work on blending sounds together using flash cards or magnetic tiles. They would also spell words and sentences when they are ready and end with oral reading.
The Orton Gillingham method is an incredibly effective method for developing reading, spelling, and writing skills. While students with dyslexia tend to thrive with Orton Gillingham tutoring, any child who struggles with reading or writing can benefit from this approach.
