What is the best Orton-Gillingham program?

Question

Orton Gillingham and Dyslexia

Answer 1

Orton-Gillingham is the original dyslexia teaching approach. It systematic and incorporates phonemic awareness and phonics. It utilizes all senses so that a student not only can hear and repeat but actually feel the graphemes. Why this is important is because dyslexia is caused by a difficulty in the phonological processing (the individual sounds of spoken language) area of the brain.

Answer 2

The Orton-Gillingham approach is considered to be the gold standard for teaching students with dyslexia. It is a multisensory, step-by-step language based approach, that requires students to master skills before moving on to the next skill. Orton Gillingham is best described as a structured language approach that differs in both WHAT is taught (reading and spelling simultaneously) and HOW it is taught (methodology). The basic purpose of this approach is to support students in becoming more effective and competent readers. There are many effective published and distinguished programs that are Orton -Gillingham based such as Slingerland, Orton-Gillingham, Wilson Reading Program, Barton Reading and Spelling and Phonics First by Brainspring, among others. These programs all incorporate multisensory approaches as well as the explicit, systematic, cumulative and structured teaching of phonics. No one program is effective for all students, because no two students are alike. Just as students have very different personalities that make them special and unique, their learning styles and abilities also make them unique. Even popular programs with high success rates are not effective for all children. These published programs seem similar in nature but upon deep diving, they are slightly different. There is no magic key to which one will work best for your child. Tutoring takes time and creating a relationship that will build success takes time. The ideal program would be designed specifically to meet the student’s individual areas of weakness, while maximizing individual learning styles and strengths. A customized Orton-Gillingham approach would be best, and highly trained and certified Dyslexia Specialists understand how to implement the Orton-Gillingham approach independent of using a published curriculum, although they may incorporate materials from different programs.