The Orton-Gillingham Multisensory Method was developed in the early 1930s by Anna Gillingham and a group of master teachers. Dr. Samuel Orton assigned Anna's group the task of designing a whole new way of teaching the phonemic structure of our written language to people with dyslexia.
The goal was to create a sequential system that builds on itself in an almost 3-dimensional way. It must show how sounds and letters are related and how they act in words; it must also show how to attack a word and break it into smaller pieces. And it must be a multi-sensory approach, as dyslexic people learn best by involving all of their senses: visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic.
The Orton-Gillingham Multisensory Method is different from other reading methods in two ways:
The International Dyslexia Association has published two Fact Sheets on Orton-Gillingham. Click here for Fact Sheet #1, and click here for Fact Sheet #2.
To watch a 20-minute demo, click here.
If your child has an I.E.P. (Individual Education Plan), this description of a reading program should be on the I.E.P.:
“Independent scientific, replicated research supports the use of a reading and spelling system that is simultaneously multisensory, systematic, and cumulative with direct and explicit instruction in both synthetic and analytic phonics with intense practice.”
Yes, you can get methodology onto an I.E.P. Click here to learn how.