Reading is one of the most foundational skills a child must master, yet for many students, learning to read is not a natural or easy process. Struggling readers—especially those with dyslexia or other language-based learning differences—often face persistent challenges with decoding, fluency, and comprehension that can impact their academic performance and self-confidence. Traditional reading instruction may not address their specific learning needs, leaving these students behind despite effort and support.

This is where the Orton Gillingham (OG) approach becomes critically important. Developed in the early 20th century by neurologist Dr. Samuel Orton and educator Anna Gillingham, this approach was specifically designed to help students who struggle with reading, writing, and spelling. It is one of the oldest and most respected structured literacy methods, and remains a gold standard for teaching students with dyslexia.

What makes OG distinctive is its multisensory, structured, sequential, and individualized approach to literacy. Instead of relying on rote memorization or exposure to text alone, OG integrates visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile techniques to help students internalize and retain phonological concepts. It meets students where they are and builds upon their existing knowledge in a logical, cumulative way.

Over the decades, the Orton Gillingham approach has been backed by decades of anecdotal success and modern research aligned with the Science of Reading, showing measurable improvements in reading fluency, decoding ability, and confidence for students with learning difficulties. Today, OG is implemented not only in private dyslexia intervention programs but also in public schools, tutoring centers, and homeschool environments. Its flexibility and proven success have made it a cornerstone of effective reading remediation.

In this article, we will explore how the Orton Gillingham approach supports struggling readers, what makes it uniquely effective, and how it can be integrated across different learning environments.

Understanding the Orton Gillingham Approach

The Orton Gillingham Approach was born out of a pioneering collaboration between two visionaries in the field of reading and brain science. In the 1920s and 1930s, Dr. Samuel T. Orton, a neuropsychiatrist and pathologist, began to research the nature of reading disabilities—what we now know as dyslexia. Through his clinical work with children, Orton recognized that reading difficulties were not due to laziness or lack of intelligence, but to neurological differences in how language is processed.

To translate his findings into practical instructional methods, Orton partnered with Anna Gillingham, a gifted educator and psychologist. Gillingham brought Orton’s research to life by creating a structured, step-by-step curriculum that combined phonics instruction with multisensory learning techniques. Together, they developed a teaching approach that was explicit, systematic, and highly individualized—designed to help students build literacy skills from the ground up.

Gillingham’s original manual, published in the 1930s, laid the groundwork for what would become one of the most respected and widely-used remedial reading approaches in history. Today, the Orton Gillingham Approach has evolved through continued research and practice, but its core principles remain unchanged and deeply rooted in the Science of Reading.

Core Principles of the Orton Gillingham Approach

1. Multisensory Instruction

One of the hallmark features of OG is its multisensory method, which engages visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile pathways in learning. For example, a student might:

• See a letter (visual),
• Say the letter sound (auditory),
• Trace the letter in sand or on paper (tactile),
• Write the letter while saying its sound (kinesthetic).

This simultaneous engagement of multiple senses helps reinforce neural connections and improves retention. It’s particularly powerful for students with dyslexia, whose brains often require more intentional sensory input to process and store language information effectively.

2. Structured, Sequential, and Cumulative Teaching

The OG approach is highly structured and follows a logical, sequential progression. It starts with the most basic elements of language—such as individual letter sounds—and gradually moves toward more complex concepts like multisyllabic words, spelling rules, and grammar.

Importantly, each lesson builds on previously mastered skills. Nothing is assumed; every concept is explicitly taught and reviewed. This cumulative design ensures that students develop a strong foundation in the structure of the English language before progressing.

3. Diagnostic and Prescriptive Methodology

OG is responsive and individualized. Instructors continuously assess the student’s understanding and adapt lessons accordingly. This makes the approach both diagnostic (constantly observing and identifying areas of difficulty) and prescriptive (designing instruction tailored to the student’s specific needs).

Teachers don’t move on until the student has demonstrated mastery. This flexible model allows OG to accommodate a wide range of learners, from those needing intense intervention to those benefiting from additional reinforcement.

Target Audience

Originally designed for children with dyslexia, the Orton Gillingham approach remains one of the most effective interventions for students with this specific learning difference. However, its benefits extend far beyond that group.

Because OG is grounded in how the brain best learns to read—explicitly and systematically—it is effective for:

• Students with general reading difficulties
• English Language Learners (ELLs)
• Students with ADHD or processing disorders
• Any learner who benefits from structured, multisensory instruction

In fact, many schools have begun incorporating OG-inspired practices into Tier 1 classroom instruction as part of universal design for learning, not just remediation.

Why Struggling Readers Need a Structured Approach

Over the past several decades, extensive research in cognitive science, linguistics, and education has converged into what is now widely known as the Science of Reading. This body of evidence identifies the essential components of effective reading instruction and how children best learn to read.

According to the National Reading Panel Report and subsequent studies, proficient reading is built on five key pillars:

1. Phonemic Awareness – the ability to hear and manipulate the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.
2. Phonics – understanding the relationship between sounds and the letters or groups of letters used to represent them in writing.
3. Fluency – the ability to read text accurately, quickly, and with appropriate expression.
4. Vocabulary – knowing the meaning of a wide range of words and how to use them in context.
5. Comprehension – the ability to understand, remember, and make meaning from what is read.

Struggling readers often lack mastery in one or more of these areas—particularly phonemic awareness and phonics, which are foundational. Without strong decoding skills, students cannot read fluently or comprehend effectively. These foundational weaknesses must be addressed through explicit and systematic instruction, which is precisely what structured approaches like Orton Gillingham provide.

Why Traditional Methods Often Fail Struggling Readers

Many traditional reading programs rely on approaches such as:

• “Whole language” or “balanced literacy” methods, which emphasize exposure to books and the assumption that children will naturally infer the rules of reading.
• Implicit instruction, where patterns, sounds, and rules are expected to be absorbed without direct teaching.
• A heavy focus on contextual guessing, picture clues, and memorizing whole words rather than decoding them.

These approaches may work for students who learn to read easily, but they fall short for those with dyslexia or other reading challenges. Such students need reading to be taught explicitly, in a way that is systematic and cumulative. Guessing at words or relying on pictures doesn’t help them decode unfamiliar language; instead, it reinforces weak strategies and increases frustration.

In fact, research shows that struggling readers benefit most from clear, consistent instruction that follows a logical progression—starting with basic sound-letter relationships and advancing to complex language structures. Traditional methods often skip or assume mastery of these early skills, leaving struggling readers without the tools they need.

How OG Directly Addresses These Foundational Needs

The Orton Gillingham approach aligns perfectly with the findings of the Science of Reading. It was designed from the outset to address the precise skills struggling readers must develop in order to succeed:

• Phonemic Awareness: OG explicitly teaches students to identify, segment, blend, and manipulate sounds in words, laying the groundwork for decoding and spelling.
• Phonics: Through a carefully sequenced and cumulative curriculum, OG teaches students the rules of phonics in a way they can master step-by-step.
• Fluency: Regular practice with decodable text and rereading builds fluency and accuracy over time.
• Vocabulary: OG includes direct instruction in word meanings, morphology (prefixes, roots, suffixes), and contextual usage to expand vocabulary.
• Comprehension: Once decoding becomes automatic, OG incorporates comprehension strategies such as summarizing, predicting, and questioning—skills that become accessible once cognitive energy is no longer tied up in decoding.

Because OG is explicit, students are never left to figure out patterns or rules on their own. Because it is systematic and cumulative, gaps are filled in logically. And because it is multisensory and individualized, it taps into a learner’s strengths to compensate for areas of difficulty.

For struggling readers, this kind of structure isn’t just helpful—it’s essential. Without it, they often fall further behind their peers, which can negatively affect not only their academic progress but also their self-esteem and motivation.

How the Orton Gillingham Approach Works in Practice

The Orton Gillingham (OG) Approach is not just a philosophy—it is a methodical, hands-on instructional system rooted in decades of practical application and refined through research. It is most effective when delivered consistently by a trained educator, tutor, or interventionist. Below, we break down how OG works in real instructional settings.

Multisensory Teaching Techniques (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Tactile)

At the heart of the OG approach is multisensory instruction, which engages multiple senses simultaneously to help struggling readers internalize concepts. Instead of relying solely on hearing or seeing, students are encouraged to use their entire bodies in the learning process.

Examples of multisensory activities:

• Visual: Seeing a letter or word on a card or board.
• Auditory: Hearing and saying the sound each letter makes.
• Kinesthetic: Air writing or tracing letters in large motions to reinforce muscle memory.
• Tactile: Writing letters in sand, shaving cream, or textured paper to “feel” the shape.

This combination strengthens neural connections and supports students with weak auditory or visual processing, common in those with dyslexia.

Structured Lesson Format: Review, New Material, Practice, Assessment

OG lessons follow a predictable and purposeful structure that supports mastery through repetition and reinforcement. A typical OG session includes the following:

1. Review: The session begins with a warm-up that revisits previously taught material, including letter sounds, word reading, or spelling patterns.
2. Introduction of New Material: One new concept is introduced at a time—such as a new phoneme, rule, or syllable type. This limits cognitive overload and ensures focus.
3. Guided Practice: Students work on controlled reading and spelling activities using words that reflect the newly taught concept.
4. Application and Reinforcement: Students may read a decodable passage, engage in dictation, or play a multisensory game to apply what they’ve learned.
5. Assessment and Error Correction: The teacher observes student responses in real time, offering immediate corrective feedback. Errors are seen as opportunities to reteach or reinforce.

This consistent, cumulative structure ensures that each lesson builds on the last, reinforcing learning and minimizing gaps.

Explicit Instruction in Key Foundational Skills

OG is built around explicit, direct teaching, especially in the critical areas where struggling readers tend to fall behind.

Phonological Awareness

OG begins at the sound level. Students are taught to:

• Identify and isolate sounds in words
• Blend and segment phonemes
• Recognize rhymes and manipulate sounds (e.g., deleting the first sound in “cat” to say “at”)

Phonological awareness is essential because students who cannot hear and manipulate sounds will struggle with decoding and spelling.

Sound-Symbol Correspondence

Students learn the relationships between letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) in a systematic order:

• Consonants, vowels, blends, digraphs, and diphthongs are taught explicitly
• Students practice reading and spelling words with these patterns, starting with CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) and advancing to more complex constructions

This phonics-based instruction ensures students don’t guess words, but decode them sound by sound.

Syllable Types and Spelling Rules

As students progress, they are introduced to the six (sometimes seven) syllable types in English:

1. Closed (e.g., “cat”)
2. Open (e.g., “go”)
3. Magic-e or silent-e (e.g., “cake”)
4. Vowel teams (e.g., “team”)
5. R-controlled (e.g., “car”)
6. Consonant-le (e.g., “candle”)

Understanding these syllable types helps students decode longer, multisyllabic words.

Students also learn spelling generalizations and rules, such as:

• The doubling rule (e.g., “running”)
• When to use “c” vs. “k”
• Plural endings and suffixes

By combining reading and spelling instruction, OG reinforces encoding and decoding as reciprocal skills.

The OG approach is highly interactive, individualized, and evidence-based. It breaks down the complexities of English into digestible parts and rebuilds them through practice and mastery. For struggling readers, this method provides clarity, confidence, and the tools needed to become independent, successful readers.

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