CLASSES BEGINNING DECEMBER 2008

Dr. Samuel Torrey Orton and his colleagues began using multisensory techniques in the mid-1920's at the mobile mental health clinic he directed in Iowa. Orton was influenced by the kinesthetic method described by Grace Fernald and Helen Keller. He suggested that kinesthetic-tactile reinforcement of visual and auditory associations could correct the tendency of reversing letters and transposing the sequence of letters while reading and writing. Students who reverse b and d are taught to use consistent, different strokes in forming each letter. For example, students make the vertical line before drawing the circle in printing the letter b; they form the circle before drawing the vertical line in printing the letter d.

The holistic nature of the Orton-Gillingham Approach reflects the knowledge and experience of those who developed it: the neurologist, Dr. Samuel Torrey Orton, the psychologist, Anna Gillingham, the social worker, June Orton, and the master teacher, Bessie Stillman. Orton-Gillingham is neither a program nor a method. It is an approach, a philosophy, and it is comprehensive. It involves receptive, integrative, and expressive aspects of neurological and psychological processes. It promotes the integration of visual, auditory, kinesthetic and tactile modalities for learning.

There is widespread agreement that the Orton-Gillingham Approach benefits students with dyslexia. Indeed, for them, it is the approach of choice. However, it has also proved effective with students with other learning disabilities. Both the content (what we teach) and the process (how we teach) can be adapted to meet the needs of these groups.

The content of the approach is dictated by the structure of the English language – its phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, prosody, and pragmatics. The careful teaching of phonology begins the reading and spelling process for all students. Students go on to learn the six syllable types and patterns of syllabication that enable them to decode longer words. Learning decoding patterns enables all students to acquire vocabulary and to deal effectively with the Latin-based vocabulary that constitutes more than half of our language.

Orton-Gillingham is a phonetically based, sequential, structured approach effective in the remediation of reading, spelling, and writing of dyslexic students. Sound systems are taught employing all of the learning pathways—auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile. The system builds from simple to complex units of language. It is most often taught on a one-to-one basis but can be taught to small groups by an experienced teacher.

JUST THE FACTS...
……. Information provided by The International Dyslexia Association®

MULTISENSORY TEACHING

What is meant by multisensory teaching?
Multisensory teaching is simultaneously visual,auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile to enhance memory and learning. Links are consistently made between the visual (what we see), auditory (what we hear), and kinesthetic-tactile (what we feel) pathways in learning to read and spell.

Margaret Byrd Rawson, a former President of The Orton Dyslexia Society (the precursor to The International Dyslexia Association), said it well:

“Dyslexic students need a different approach to learning language from that employed in most classrooms. They need to be taught, slowly and thoroughly, the basic elements of their language - - the sounds and the letters which represent them
-- and how to put these together and take them apart. They have to have lots of practice in having their writing hands, eyes, ears, and voices working together for the conscious organization and retention of their learning.”

Teachers who use this approach teach children to link the sounds of the letters with the written symbol. Children also link the sound and symbol with how it feels to form the letter or letters. As students learn a new letter or pattern (such as s or th), they carefully trace, copy, and write the letter(s) while saying the corresponding sound.The sound may be made by the teacher and the letter name(s) given by the student. Students then read and spell words, phrases, and sentences using these patterns. Teachers and their students rely on all three pathways for learning rather than focusing on a “sight-word” or memory method, a “tracing method,” or a “phonetic method” alone.

When and where was multisensory teaching introduced for children with dyslexia?
Dr. Samuel Torrey Orton and his colleagues began using multisensory techniques in the mid-1920's at the mobile mental health clinic he directed in Iowa. Orton was influenced by the kinesthetic method described by Grace Fernald and Helen Keller. He suggested that kinesthetictactile reinforcement of visual and auditory associations could correct the tendency of reversing letters and transposing the sequence of letters while reading and writing. Students who reverse b and d are taught to use consistent,
different strokes in forming each letter. For example, students make the vertical line before drawing the circle in printing the letter b; they form the circle before drawing the vertical line in printing the letter d.

Anna Gillingham and Bessie Stillman based their original 1936 teaching manual for the “alphabeticmethod” on Dr. Orton's theories. They combined multisensory techniques with teaching the structure of written English, including the sounds (phonemes), meaning units (morphemes such as prefixes, suffixes, and roots) and common spelling rules. The phrase “Orton-Gillingham
approach” refers to the structured, sequential, multisensory techniques established by Dr. Orton and Ms. Gillingham and their colleagues.

What is the rationale behind multisensory teaching?
Children with dyslexia often exhibit weaknesses in auditory and/or visual processing. They may have weak phonemic awareness, meaning they are unaware of the role sounds play in words. They have difficulty rhyming words, blending sounds to make words, or segmenting words into sounds. They may also have difficulty acquiring a sight vocabulary. That is, dyslexic children do not learn the sight words expected in the primary grades. In general, they do not pick up the alphabetic code or system.
When taught by a multisensory approach, children have the advantage of learning alphabetic patterns and words by utilizing all three pathways. Orton suggested that teaching the “fundamentals of phonic association with letter forms both visually presented and reproduced in writing, until the correct associations were built up” would benefit students of all ages.

Is there solid evidence that multisensory teaching is effective for children with dyslexia?
There is a growing body of evidence supporting multisensory teaching. Current research, much of it supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), converges on the efficacy of explicit structured language teaching for children with dyslexia. Young children in structured, sequential, multisensory intervention programs, who were
also trained in phonemic awareness, made significant gains in decoding skills. These multisensory approaches used direct, explicit teaching of letter-sound relationships, syllable patterns, and meaning word parts. Studies in
clinical settings showed similar results for a wide range of ages and abilities.

The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) thanks Marcia K. Henry, Ph.D. for her assistance in the preparation of this fact sheet.

What is the Orton-Gillingham Approach, and what makes it so unique?
First of all, it is diagnostic and prescriptive. Each lesson is planned for a particular student or small group of students. It is not a “packaged” curriculum in which “one size fits all.” The teacher must be adaptable and flexible, understanding the learner’s needs and using appropriate teaching strategies.

Orton-Gillingham is also direct and explicit, and students are not expected to know anything that has not already been taught and practiced.

It is language based. Teachers are trained in the structure of the English language. They teach the language as it is to the students where they are in their understanding of the language. Lots of programs may say they are multisensory in that auditory, visual, and kinesthetic elements are all utilized together to reinforce each other for optimal learning.
What makes Orton-Gillingham unique in this respect is that spelling is taught simultaneously with reading. It is critical that reading and spelling go hand in hand.

Students begin by reading and writing letters/sounds in isolation. These letters/sounds are blended into syllables and words. The consonants, digraphs, blends, and vowel teams are all introduced in a structured, sequential way.
Students learn new material while also reviewing “old” material until their skills are automatic. Vocabulary, sentence structure, writing and composition, and reading comprehension are all taught in a structured, sequential, and cumulative manner.
Students learn about the history of the language, and they study the rules and generalizations that govern a lot of its structure.
Metacognitive strategies are taught and encouraged so that reading and writing become thinking activities rather than guessing games.Finally, because Orton-Gillingham skills are constantly reviewed and new material is introduced systematically, students experience a high degree of success with each lesson. Students gain both confidence and skill. Self esteem develops from that success, and learning becomes a positive experience.

Preventing Academic Pressure And Failure: the OG way
Components of a Daily Lesson
1. REVIEW of sounds, key words and motor patterns previously taught. (These sounds are presented on the PAF Alphabet Cards). This includes phonograms, affixes, and read words (non-phonetic words). The student views the letter(s) (visual), says the name of the letter, names the key picture, says it's sound (each auditory), and then sky writes the letter (writes in the air, arm extended-kinesthetic).

2. INTRODUCTION of the NEW SKILL: Key sound(s), key word and motor pattern to be taught in the curriculum sequence is presented. This part of the lesson includes five components:

A) Phonograms,
B) Grammar rules,
C) Syllabication,
D) Spelling rules and
E) Read words.

3. SPELLING DICTATION : Here the students apply previously taught skills as well as the new skill in writing. It is important to select words that can be spelled with skills previously taught and red words learned, to a mastery level, in the spelling and sentence dictation. Writing includes individual phonetic words, as well as sentences dictated by the instructor and student originated sentences. A corresponding word list is provided in the back of the PAF manual.

4. READING: The students practice the skill of decoding words on lists of isolated words, corresponding to the skill taught.

5. REINFORCEMENT: Teacher made activities and/or phonetic workbooks (i.e.: Explode the Code) provide practice of the skills.

Contact 099200 80460 for details of Class Timings.

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