The Orton-Gillingham approach is a multi-sensory way of teaching reading, spelling and writing skills to students who struggle with language-based learning difficulties, including dyslexia. Lessons focus on mastery of the smallest units of language first, including phonemes and graphemes, and then build to whole word, phrase and sentence level instruction. 

Because Orton-Gillingham focuses both on enhancing phonological awareness and teaching English language rules, it can also be useful for English Language Learner (ELL) students. Commonly described as structured, systematic, sequential and cumulative, Orton-Gillingham takes a bottom-up approach to reading beginning with the smallest units of meaning.

A tutor works one-on-one with an individual, explaining language rules and guiding experimentation with phonics. It necessitates a good working relationship between tutor and student; each lesson is based on the progress a student demonstrates from the previous one. Interaction is key, as is involving diverse sensory channels to help encode new material and enhance recall.

Because no two children with dyslexia will experience the same set or degree of symptoms, the Orton-Gillingham approach is flexible and advocates diagnostic testing to assess where students should begin based on their level of phonological awareness and literacy skills.

Repetition and review are emphasized and learners are urged to continue working with a new unit until the material is mastered and they feel ready to move on.

History of the approach

The Orton-Gillingham approach has been in use for the past 80 years and is the oldest dyslexia specific approach to remedial reading instruction. It was developed in the 1930s by neuro-psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Orton based on his work with children who struggled with language processing issues but were of normal intelligence.

He proposed a neurological basis for the problem and developed a series of activities that combined right and left brain functions, predicting they would positively impact on the children’s ability to read and spell.

Dr. Anna Gillingham, a teacher at Columbia University in New York, focused her efforts on training instructors in the approach, creating materials and expanding the instruction to include essential features of the English language, such as prefixes, suffixes and even spelling rules.

The two published the Remedial Training for Children with Specific Disability in Reading, Spelling and Penmanship in 1935/36 and the basis for today’s approach was born.