If you've started looking into reading help for your child, you've probably seen the term "Orton-Gillingham," often shortened to OG. It comes up constantly in conversations about dyslexia, and for good reason. As an Orton-Gillingham certified teacher, here's my plain-English guide to what it is, what a lesson actually looks like, and who it helps.
Where Orton-Gillingham came from
The approach is named after Dr. Samuel Orton, a neuropsychiatrist who studied children with reading difficulties, and Anna Gillingham, an educator and psychologist. Beginning in the 1930s, they developed a way of teaching reading that breaks written language into small, logical pieces and teaches each one directly. Many of today's structured reading programs grew out of their work.
Orton-Gillingham is an approach, not a single boxed curriculum. A trained teacher uses its principles to plan lessons around the exact skills a student needs.
The core principles
- Explicit: Every sound, spelling pattern and rule is taught directly. Kids are never expected to just pick it up.
- Systematic and sequential: Skills are taught in a logical order, from simple to complex. Short vowels come before vowel teams, and one-syllable words before longer ones.
- Cumulative: Each lesson reviews what came before, so skills become automatic.
- Multisensory: Students see it, say it, hear it and write it. Tracing letters, tapping out sounds and building words with tiles help new learning stick.
- Diagnostic and responsive: The teacher watches closely and adjusts every lesson based on how the student did last time.
What a lesson looks like
Every tutor's sessions look a little different, but a typical OG-based lesson with a young reader might include:
- A quick sound review: flipping through letter and sound cards to keep known skills sharp.
- Blending practice: reading real and made-up words that use known patterns, so kids decode instead of memorizing.
- A new concept: for example, how a silent e changes "cap" to "cape," taught with hands-on examples.
- Tricky words: practicing common words that don't follow the rules, like "said" and "was."
- Reading connected text: reading sentences or a short decodable story that uses the day's patterns.
- Dictation: spelling sounds, words and sentences, because reading and spelling are learned together.
Lessons move quickly and switch activities often, which helps young kids stay focused and feel successful.
Who it helps
Orton-Gillingham was designed for students with dyslexia, but its explicit, structured approach helps many children who find reading or spelling hard. That includes kids who have learned to guess at words from pictures, kids who read slowly and with a lot of effort, and good readers who still struggle with spelling.
What does the research say?
It's worth being honest here. Research strongly supports explicit, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics, which the International Dyslexia Association calls Structured Literacy. Orton-Gillingham is one of the best-known ways to deliver that kind of teaching. Studies of OG as its own brand name are more limited, so the teacher's skill and how consistently lessons happen matter a lot.
How long does it take?
There's no single answer. Progress depends on your child's starting point, how often sessions happen and how much practice happens in between. Consistency matters most. Regular sessions, with a little practice at home, tend to work far better than occasional ones.
Want to try some of this at home? My guide on how to help your child with reading at home has simple sound games and routines that follow the same principles.
Orton-Gillingham tutoring near you
I'm an Orton-Gillingham certified teacher and former Reading Intervention Teacher. I use OG methods, along with programs like UFLI, SIPPS and Heggerty, with K–6 students in Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Westlake Village, Oak Park, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Woodland Hills and Encino. Read more about my dyslexia and Orton-Gillingham tutoring, or get in touch to talk about your child.