The Orton-Gillingham Approach

More Than Simply Practicing Reading

If your child has struggled with reading for some time, you may have already tried reading together more often, practicing sight words, using flashcards, or encouraging them to sound out difficult words.

For some children, particularly those with dyslexia, additional practice alone may not address the underlying skills that are making reading difficult.

The Orton-Gillingham approach looks beneath the struggle.

Instead of focusing only on the words a child cannot read, we look at the skills involved in reading those words. Where is the difficulty occurring? Is the student having trouble identifying individual sounds? Blending them together? Remembering a spelling pattern? Breaking apart a longer word?

Once we understand where the difficulty lies, instruction can begin there.

What Is Orton-Gillingham?

Orton-Gillingham is an approach to literacy instruction developed specifically with struggling readers in mind. It provides a framework for teaching the structure of written language in a deliberate and organized way.

An important distinction is that Orton-Gillingham is an approach rather than a scripted program.

There isn't one identical lesson that every student must complete before moving to the next. Instruction can change depending on what a student demonstrates during a lesson.

That makes one-on-one instruction especially valuable.

If your child understands a concept quickly, we can build upon it. If something hasn't become secure yet, we can spend more time there, approach it differently, and provide additional practice before introducing something new.

What Are We Actually Teaching?

Learning to read involves much more than recognizing words on a page.

Students gradually develop an understanding of how spoken language connects with written language. Orton-Gillingham instruction helps make those connections more visible.

Depending on your child's needs, we may work on skills such as:

Hearing the sounds within words
Before students can confidently connect sounds with letters, they need to be able to recognize and work with the sounds themselves.

Connecting sounds and letters
Students learn the relationships between the sounds they hear and the letters or groups of letters used to represent them.

Blending sounds into words
Rather than guessing an unfamiliar word, students learn how to combine its sounds to read it.

Breaking words apart for spelling
Students learn to listen for the sounds and structures within a word and use that information when spelling.

Understanding syllables
Longer words become more manageable when students learn how words can be divided into smaller parts.

Recognizing spelling patterns
English can seem unpredictable, but there are many patterns and conventions that students can learn and apply.

Over time, these skills begin working together.

What Might a Lesson Look Like?

Your child isn't simply going to spend 50 minutes reading from a book.

A lesson moves through different activities that reinforce both previously learned skills and new learning.

We might begin by reviewing sounds or concepts from previous sessions. Your child may then work with spoken sounds before connecting those sounds to letters and words.

A new concept can be introduced and practiced through both reading and spelling. We can then apply it to words, sentences, and eventually connected text.

Throughout the lesson, I am paying attention to more than whether an answer is right or wrong.

I'm looking at how your child arrived at the answer.

Did they recognize the pattern independently?

Did they need to sound the word out?

Did they guess?

Was there a particular sound that caused difficulty?

Can they apply the same skill to a word they have never seen before?

Those observations help determine what we work on next.

Why Reading and Spelling Are Taught Together

Reading and spelling are closely connected.

When reading, a child sees letters and needs to connect them with sounds and meaning.

When spelling, they work in the opposite direction—starting with a spoken word and determining how its sounds should be represented in writing.

Working in both directions helps reinforce the same underlying knowledge.

Instead of only recognizing a pattern when they see it, students practice understanding and using it themselves.

Why Review Is So Important

A student may understand something during a lesson without being able to recall it automatically several days later.

That is why previously learned material continues to appear in future lessons.

We don't simply check off a concept and never return to it.

Students encounter previously taught skills again while reading, spelling, writing, and learning new concepts. This gives them repeated opportunities to retrieve and apply what they know.

The goal is for skills that once required considerable thought to gradually become more automatic.

And as decoding becomes more automatic, the student can devote more attention to what reading is ultimately about: understanding the message on the page.

Learning to Read Unfamiliar Words

One of the most meaningful changes I want to see is what happens when a student encounters a word they have never seen before.

Memorization can help a child recognize a word they have practiced, but reading requires being able to approach thousands of unfamiliar words throughout life.

Imagine a student encounters a longer word they don't recognize.

Rather than immediately guessing or giving up, they can begin asking themselves:

What sounds do I recognize?

Is there a pattern I've learned?

Can I divide this word into smaller parts?

What do I know that can help me figure this out?

That's a very different experience from being told what the word says.

We are helping students develop tools they can eventually use without the tutor sitting beside them.

Why Can This Help with Dyslexia?

A child with dyslexia can be intelligent, curious, and capable while finding the process of learning to read unusually difficult.

The solution isn't simply to ask them to try harder.

They may need the parts of written language that other children pick up more readily to be made more visible and understandable.

This is where the Orton-Gillingham approach can be particularly valuable.

We can identify gaps in foundational literacy skills, address them directly, provide meaningful practice, and gradually connect those skills with increasingly complex reading and spelling.

Instead of repeatedly experiencing reading as something they cannot do, students can begin to understand why words work the way they do and what to do when they get stuck.

Progress Happens One Connection at a Time

There isn't a single timeline that applies to every student.

Some skills may develop quickly. Others may require considerable practice before they become secure.

That's okay.

The goal isn't to race through lessons or reach a particular page in a curriculum.

The goal is to create lasting understanding.

As those connections become stronger, you may begin noticing changes that go beyond test scores: your child attempts unfamiliar words instead of immediately asking for help, recognizes patterns they previously missed, catches some of their own mistakes, or approaches reading with less hesitation.

Those small moments matter because they represent something bigger:

Your child is beginning to understand how to learn independently.

See How It Could Work for Your Child

Every child's reading experience is different. If you're wondering why your child is struggling or whether Orton-Gillingham-based instruction could be a good fit, we can start with a conversation.

During your free parent consultation, we'll discuss what you've been noticing, your child's current needs, and how individualized tutoring at Everbright could support them.