The Orton - Gillingham Approach
Orton – Gillingham is a teaching approach that was designed to help struggling readers. It is a structured literacy approach that explicitly teaches connections between letters and sounds. The approach introduces the idea of breaking reading and spelling down into smaller skills involving letters and sounds, and then building on these skills over time.
It pioneers as a multi-sensory approach to teaching reading, which is a common part of effective literacy programs. This means that instructors or teachers use sight, hearing, touch, and movement to help students connect language with letters and words.
The Orton – Gillingham (OG) approach focuses on teaching reading at the word level. It can also help develop reading comprehension, but that’s not the main goal. The OG approach uses multiple senses to help students learn. For example, children might learn the letter "P" by seeing it, saying its name, and sounding it out while writing it with their fingers in sand or
shaving foam. Orton – Gillingham also helps children understand the rules and patterns in reading. With those skills, they’re better able to decode, or sound out words.