Nice to meet you

My introduction to the world of Structured Literacy and Orton Gillingham was initially as a parent. After two of my four sons were diagnosed with dyslexia I went on a thorough round of research to determine the best method of intervention.

Discovering Orton Gillingham quite literally placed a system in my hands that I had struggled to articulate for years. As I watched both of my Dyslexic sons attempt to learn to read, the first successfully made it to grade 6 memorizing words before his diagnosis, I continually felt that they needed to learn sound by sound, incrementally and cumulatively.

My work is grounded in Orton Gillingham and always from a strength based approach. It is imperative that students feel confident in what they know which is reinforced at the beginning of each lesson. From this place of success they incrementally learn more literacy skills building their ability to read and write both phonetically regular and irregular words.

What is Structured Literacy?

Systematic & Cumulative

Systematic meaning material is organizsed following the logical order of language from the easiest . most basic concepts & elements, progressing methodically to the more difficult. Cumulative meaning each step is based on previously learned concepts.

Diagnostic

????Instruction should be individualized, based on careful and continuous assessment, both informal (e.g. observation) and formal (e.g. standardized measures). Content should be mastered to the degree of automaticity needed to free cognitive resources for higher order processes.

Explicit

?????Structured literacy requires direct teaching of concepts with continuous student-teacher interaction, not assuming that students infer concepts. Explicit instruction also involves carefully considered practice, as well as prompt, specific feedback.

Multi-Sensory

While not strictly part of the Structured Literacy framework multi-sensory instruction is a powerful tool used in Orton-Gilligham and many other programmes.

Have any questions?

If you have any questions about the literacy intervention, feel free to contact us.