Orton-Gillingham: the Who, Why, and How

Oct 25

Dr. Orton was a neuropsychiatrist and pathologist who studied children with reading and language difficulties in the early 20th century.
He observed that some intelligent children had unusual struggles with reading and spelling that couldn’t be explained by poor teaching or low intellect.
Dr. Orton theorized that these children had differences in how their brains processed written language. We now understand this neurological phenomena as dyslexia.
From his research, Dr. Orton realized the need for explicit, multisensory instruction that connected sounds (phonemes) with letters and words (graphemes).

Anna Gillingham was a psychologist, educator, and linguist who collaborated with Dr. Orton.
She compiled and systematized his ideas into a structured teaching manual, creating what became the Orton–Gillingham approach.
In 1936, she and Bessie Stillman published The Gillingham Manual, which laid out the instructional sequence and techniques that are still used today.

The Orton–Gillingham approach remains the foundation of structured literacy—a term now used widely in reading science.
The OG approach is endorsed by the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) and is used in schools and tutoring centers across the world.

Common Dyslexia Misconceptions