A roundup of my best Orton-Gillingham resources.
As the homeschooling mom of 7 kids with dyslexia I have tried just about every reading program out there. Once I discovered that the Orton-Gillingham (OG) approach was proven by research to be the best way to teach reading to kids with dyslexia, I was all in.
Once I started using Orton-Gillingham resources with my own kids I saw a huge improvement in their reading. I was so impressed that I became a certified dyslexia tutor.
Resources for Understanding Orton-Gillingham
What is Orton-Gillingham? Read this post of you’re new to the world of teaching kids with dyslexia or want to know more about the OG approach. Learn how the approach was developed and the components of a true OG program.
A Comparison of the Top Four Orton-Gillingham Reading Programs for Homeschoolers Fortunately, we don’t need to create our own reading programs based off the Orton-Gillingham approach. There are a variety of excellent programs designed with ease of use in mind. If you’re looking for an OG program, read this comparison of the top 4 OG programs designed for homeschoolers.
How to Organize an Orton-Gillingham Lesson With a Free OG Lesson Planner. Kids with dyslexia need a LOT of review. One of the best ways to individualize your lessons is to keep a record of what you cover in each lesson and what you will do in the next lesson. This free downloadable lesson planner will help you stay on track.
Resources for Teaching Reading
What to do When Your Reading Program Isn’t Working Read this post if you’re using an OG reading program and feel your child is not making significant progress.
How to Make Teaching Reading Fun Teaching reading to kids with dyslexia can be hard. These kids need lots of review and quite honestly, this can be tedious for them. This post contains tips for how I make my kids’ lessons more fun.
Teaching Sight Words I distinctly remember wanting to pull my hair out while trying to teach my kids to read sight words (words that don’t follow rules). Their poor memory made it virtually impossible for them to remember these ‘rule breakers’. Then I learned this amazing, multi-sensory method and learning sight words became easy and fun!
Homeschool Reading Prep: How to Plan for a Great Year of Reading Take the overwhelm out of teaching with an OG program by following these tried and true tips for organizing your reading instruction.
What to do When Reading Lessons Take ALL Day! One of the most common complaints I hear from my readers is that teaching kids with dyslexia takes a LONG time! Read this post for some of my best time saving tips. Get reading done and have time for fun.
8 Things I do With my Dyslexic Readers Everyday Aside from teaching with an OG program, these are some things I do each day with my dyslexic kids to help them learn better.
Good evening, my name is Patsy Hastings. I am an elementary k-4 interventionist at Belmont Elem in Belmont Mississippi. I have been teaching for seven years and I have the OG program. When I began teaching I had never heard if OG. I am not sure if I have all the program, but I think I do. The last two years I am getting more and more Dyslexic tendencies students and honestly I don’t know how to properly use to their benefit. I have had no training with the program or with these type of learning disabilities. I really need help to be a better teacher in this area for my students with this program. Could you PLEASE help me.
Is your school one that insists that you teach small groups five days a week? I have found that twice a week one-on-one makes better use of teaching time (and the school’s, since they are paying our salary). This way children don’t have to leave their class as often (and should never miss things like art and gym). The hardest thing with this approach is scheduling, but the one-on-one lessons give you a chance to avoid the group problem of forcing kids to concentrate on what they already know and stretch to understand what they don’t.
Tutoring also helps you to improve on methods that seem to be written in stone and make improvements on establishment approaches. For example, while adhering to Orton-Gillingham principles, I came up with improvements like mnemonic picture-letters and color-coded vowels, even though the established Orton-Gillingham programs don’t use these techniques. Mnemonic picture-letters have been supported by research (see Ehri and Wilce), and the only color codes I know of have 17 colors. (Mine has 11 plus black and white.)
Out of desperation (the way we do many things), I also came up with approach to phoneme-awareness training that involves eyes and hands as well as ears and speech. Accepted phoneme awareness training involves out-of-the-air listening (difficult for many dyslexics), whereas mine involves actual letters (a few at a time, with mnemonic pictures on them) which the child can move into beginning-middle-end boxes.
These approaches save a lot of time, making it possible for mildly dyslexic children to catch up before they fail and for severely dyslexic children to get started on their journey without waiting (for much too long) to have everything tested and measured and quantified.
Almost all my games and my techniques for memorizing vowels are designed for tutoring, but I’m sure that innovative teachers could adapt these ideas to small-group instruction (even though I prefer tutoring).
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I hope this helps. If you are struggling with groups, you have my sympathy.
Where can I get glitter boards for student?
I’m an administrator for a PSP who would love to stick our library with reading curriculum that a homeschool mom can use with her dyslexic child. I’m aware of the Barton Reading & Spelling program. Can you suggest any others?
Here is a link to my top 4 picks:
https://homeschoolingwithdyslexia.com/comparison-orton-gillingham-reading-programs/
I homeschool my grandkids and they have dyslexia. I am looking for a writing program that corrects spelling and grammar, especially for those with dyslexia. They are twins and are 12 years old. Could you recommend a user-friendly program?
Thank you!