Orton Gillingham for Language Based Learning Disabilities

Adria Karlsson has a good article on teaching the Orton Method for kids with spelling and reading issues.

Overcoming reading difficulties with Orton-Gillingham
Guest author Adria Karlsson writes about teaching children with language-based learning disabilities how to read.

There are many different types of learner in the world. Within any given classroom a teacher is likely to encounter a myriad of learning styles, skills, special talents, and learning differences. Although this can create an exceptionally enriching environment for the students, it requires a teacher that can encourage students to shine in areas where they are strong, and to learn in areas where they struggle.

As a teacher of student with language-based learning disabilities, I encounter students with very different learning styles each day. I work with students from first through seventh grade, and it is remarkable the ways in which each student’s profile is unique. The common strand throughout though is their difficulty in learning how to read, spell, and write. Commonly referred to as dyslexic, these students in fact have very different learning profiles, but none of them are disabled. Without proper instruction, they quickly fall by the wayside and often descend to the title of “trouble student.”

To tackle language-based learning disabilities, you need an approach which provides structure and positive feedback while allowing for the differences in each child’s learning style. My fellow teachers and I follow the Orton-Gillingham approach for reading instruction. Their method is “language-based, multisensory, structured, sequential, cumulative, cognitive, and flexible” (ortonacademy.org). This means that we teach students using their eyes, ears, and fingers. We teach them using a process that draws on their ability to problem solve and use logical reasoning. We do not make huge leaps in instruction and expect them to intuitively understand how language works. They always progress even as they constantly review the basics. It is clearly acknowledged that our students are capable, and we draw on their strengths as thinkers to enable them to learn. Lastly, we teach them in a way that works for each individual student – not in the way that works for the “normal” learners in the world.

Each lesson follows the same progression but with a new focus each day:

When the student comes in, the first thing they encounter is some type of listening exercise. For example, the student may have to recognize the sounds in a word, just the first sound of words, find rhyming patterns, or recognize which vowel teams are present.This is followed by practice using the “O-G Cards”. These are cards with different letters and letter combinations written on them. The student says the letter, the sound it makes, and a key word that helps them remember the sound, while “writing” the letter in sand, the air, or in some other way. This way they are really experiencing the letter in as many ways as possible.Part three is reading words – using what they know from working with the cards to blend the sounds together and really read. In Orton-Gillingham, though, we never mix these decodable words (words that can be sounded out), with “sight words” (words that have to be memorized). Sight words and fluency would generally be practiced after this.The last part of the decoding piece of the lesson is reading actual connected text. No matter how low the reader is the teacher or tutor will make sure they have sentences or a short story to read. This is good practice and also reinforces for them why they are working so hard!After that, it is on to the “encoding”, or writing, part of the lesson. This always comes second, because really, by writing, the student is practicing what they just learned to decode. The first part is very straight forward- just “What says” and then a sound. While this is simple at first, it gets very complicated as kids advance, for example, there are nine different things that say the long e sound!Then the child spells words – by separating them into sounds, assigning each sound a letter, and then writing the word. Then they read each word back. This may seem simple, but for many dyslexic kids this is very different than writing the word!The last official step is the dictation. When the student has to string together words and spell out a whole sentence or paragraph. Like with reading- this gives them a chance to see what they are aiming for; it is also an excellent time to practice capitalization and punctuation, which many struggle with.Even though that is the last official part of the lesson, because the student has worked SO hard, many tutors end each lesson with a game. Of course, one of the nice things about teaching O-G is how many of the preceding parts of the lesson can be turned into games, but that is an article in and of itself!
That is how an Orton-Gillingham lesson looks. It is highly structured and, due to that particular structure, it is also highly effective. Although no approach is right for every student, the Orton-Gillingham approach has proven successful over and over again for students that struggle to learn the symbolic systems of our language. With a knowledgeable tutor that can tailor the process to an individual learner, these “disabled” students have shown how able they really are. They grow into confident people with an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. As a teacher, there is nothing like seeing a severely dyslexic student crack a piece of the code and realize that “hop” can be turned into “hope” by adding the “Magic E”. I credit the Orton-Gillingham approach for making that happen.

Parents who are interested in learning more about Orton-Gillingham can visit their web site at www.ortonacademy.org. Here are a few other useful links:

International Dyslexia Association
Dyslexia Parents Resource
Carroll School – parent resources via a school for children with language based learning differences