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THE APPROACH
What Is Dyslexia?
The word dyslexia comes from Greek roots meaning “difficulty with words.”
Dyslexia refers to difficulty using and processing the symbolic code of language, which may affect listening, speaking, reading, spelling, writing, and expression of thought. Research in neuroscience and linguistics describes dyslexia as a language-based difference that may affect spoken language, written language, and comprehension.
Individuals with dyslexia often experience ongoing difficulty mastering the foundational elements of reading and writing, even with traditional instruction. Because language is central to learning, these challenges may affect many areas of education.
OUR POSITION
The Orton-Gillingham Academy Statement on Dyslexia
The Orton-Gillingham Academy is committed to promoting understanding of dyslexia. Dyslexia is unrelated to mental or cognitive impairment and primarily affects reading and language-related tasks.
Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties with accurate and fluent word reading, spelling, and decoding due to challenges in identifying speech sounds and their relationships to letters and words. Research has shown that the brain's unique wiring may allow individuals with dyslexia to approach problems in different ways.
Many individuals with dyslexia demonstrate strengths in visual-spatial reasoning, creative thinking, and problem-solving, contributing to success across a wide range of fields.
What Is the Orton-Gillingham Approach?
The Orton-Gillingham (OG) Approach is a direct, explicit, structured, sequential, multisensory, and diagnostic approach to teaching reading, spelling, and writing. It is designed for individuals who do not learn literacy skills easily, including those with dyslexia.
The Approach is flexible and responsive to the learner, allowing instruction to be adapted based on individual needs, pacing, and skill development. It is grounded in both time-tested educational practice and scientific understanding of how individuals learn to read, why some experience difficulty, and which instructional practices are most effective.
Instruction is most often delivered one-to-one, but it is also used successfully in small-group and classroom settings. The Approach is named for Dr. Samuel Orton, a neuropsychiatrist who helped identify and study reading difficulties, and Anna Gillingham, an educator whose instructional materials and teacher training formed the foundation of OG instruction.
Who Were Orton and Gillingham?
Samuel Torrey Orton (1879-1948), a neuropsychiatrist, was a pioneer in focusing attention on reading failure and related language processing difficulties. He brought together neuroscientific information and principles of remediation. As early as the 1920s, he had extensively studied children with the kind of language processing difficulties now commonly associated with dyslexia and had formulated a set of teaching principles and practices for such children.
Anna Gillingham (1878-1963) was a gifted educator and psychologist with a superb mastery of the language. Working with Dr. Orton, she trained teachers and compiled and published instructional materials. Over the last half century the Orton-Gillingham Approach has been the seminal and most influential intervention designed expressly for remediating the language processing problems of children and adults with dyslexia.
Remembering Miss Gillingham by Diana Hanbury King, Honorary Founding Fellow/OGA
TWO NAMES, ONE APPROACH
Why the Hyphen Matters
The hyphen in Orton-Gillingham is important because it reflects the combined contributions of Dr. Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham, whose work forms the foundation of the Orton-Gillingham Approach.
Dr. Orton was a pioneer in understanding the relationship between reading difficulties and language processing. He recognized that reading, writing, and spoken language are interconnected and emphasized a comprehensive, language-based approach to instruction. His work laid the foundation for understanding how neural connections support learning and memory.
Anna Gillingham, working with Bessie Stillman, translated these insights into instructional practice. She organized language instruction from simple to complex concepts, emphasized the importance of multisensory learning and kinesthetic memory, and developed the rules and generalizations that help learners understand the structure of language. Her work, documented in the Gillingham Manual, remains foundational to Orton-Gillingham instruction today.
Together, their contributions created the framework that continues to guide the Orton-Gillingham Approach.