The Orton-Gillingham Approach (OG) is based on more than 70 years of evidence-based research. The OG approach is grounded in how the neurological process of language initiates reading, writing, and speaking. Based on the scientific research of Samuel T. Orton, the OG approach stimulates the brain’s visual-auditory-kinesthetic-tactile pathways to restructure the individual’s language processing system. Foundations of Reading research have determined that this approach is effective for the remediation of reading, writing, and speaking.

Longleaf Academy Resource Programs have trained OG professionals who adhere to the principles required by the Orton-Gillingham Academy. Students receive structured and systematic lessons daily based upon the child’s present level of performance. Each language concept is mastered for reading and spelling to develop fluency at the phoneme, word, sentence, and passage level.

The Orton-Gillingham approach empowers educators to develop an individualized, structured, multisensory plan to teach reading and vocabulary skills. Orton-Gillingham is a step-by-step learning process involving letters and sounds that encourages students to advance upon each smaller manageable skill learned throughout the process. It was the first approach to use explicit, direct, sequential, systematic, multi-sensory instruction to teach reading, which is effective for all students and essential for teaching students with dyslexia.

The Orton-Gillingham approach is made up of components that ensure that students are not only able to use learned strategies, but can also explain the how and why of phonological strategies. This instructional approach encourages students by seeing, saying, sounding, and writing letters to master decoding and encoding of words. The Orton-Gillingham approach emphasizes multisensory learning, which combines sight, hearing, touch, and movement. This approach works well for students with dyslexia who lack a basic level of phonemic awareness.