Orton Gillingham Approach

What is the Orton Gillingham Approach to Teaching Spelling?

The best program for teaching spelling is one that is based on the techniques of the Orton Gillingham approach, a proven method that is:

  • Multisensory—it is visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Students learn best when we teach using all the available pathways to the brain: seeing, hearing, saying, and writing.
  • Sequential—students are taught concepts in a logical sequence.
  • Incremental—each lesson carefully builds upon the previous lesson. Lessons progress from simple to more complex.
  • Cumulative—the method integrates constant review of previously-taught concepts.
  • Individualized—to meet the unique needs of each student.
  • Based on phonograms
  • Explicit—the student is taught what he needs to know in a direct manner.

Who Were Orton and Gillingham?

Samuel T. Orton (1879-1948) was a neuropsychiatrist who studied language-related problems. He developed techniques to help dyslexic patients (he called it “wordblindness”) and criticized the look-say method of teaching reading. Anna Gillingham was a teacher and psychologist who studied under Dr. Orton and who further developed his ideas.  

 

From Our Mailbox

I have seen many spelling programs, most of which are word family lists or look-say-spell methods that unfortunately do not work for many children. All About Spelling has step-by-step lessons with the gradual introduction of phonograms, uses multisensory learning (visual, auditory, kinesthetic), teaches phonemic awareness, blending, segmenting, and irregular words (a.k.a. Rule Breakers), uses dictation of words, phrases, and sentences for reinforcement, and more. This is one of the first “spelling-focused” programs I've seen that is based solidly on Orton Gillingham principles.  

Tina Burnell
Heart of Reading

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