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Improving Skills and Confidence with the Orton-Gillingham Reading Program

By Jess Clarke

When Jeremy Clayton is looking for a way to make his reading lessons stick with students at New Leaf Academy, he may hit the sidewalk with them or bring a plate of sand into the classroom for pupils to write in.

Since last fall, New Leaf Academy of North Carolina, a therapeutic boarding school for girls, has used the Orton-Gillingham reading program for students who are behind in reading skills. The program features a multi-sensory approach to helping kids retain new skills and move forward academically.

The acts of drawing a letter with a finger in the sand while saying the letter and writing on the sidewalk with chalk can reinforce reading lessons. “I’m always searching for new ways to involve movement in the classroom, especially with students with attention difficulties,” says Clayton, a learning specialist at New Leaf.

Approach Proves Effective for a Variety of Learning Disabilities

The Orton-Gillingham approach has proven effective for students with reading and other learning difficulties, including blurred vision, auditory challenges, dyslexia (the jumbling of letters and words), and dysgraphia (an impaired ability to write). Some students may also have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

The approach has gained a foothold in private boarding schools, English as a Second Language programs, and public schools. Stone Mountain School, a therapeutic boarding school for boys in Black Mountain, N.C., also uses the Orton-Gillingham program. Stone Mountain and New Leaf are part of the Aspen Education Group, a division of CRC Health Group.

Multi-Sensory Exercises

Using techniques that include hands-on exercises, the Orton-Gillingham program works well with a variety of learning styles, whether students learn best by seeing, hearing, or through other sensory means. “The more you get all your senses involved, the more successful you are in learning, especially with something like reading,” Clayton says.

The Orton-Gillingham multi-sensory approach helps improve retention by getting around blockages that interfere with processing knowledge in teens with learning disabilities. With such pupils, “There’s a kink in a pipe,” New Leaf Academic Director Bryan Tomes says. “They’re learning other sensory sources to bypass the pipe that has a kink in it. A lot of the multi-sensory aspect comes when you’re looking for a different route to the areas of the brain you’re trying to reach.”

Orton-Gillingham’s low student-teacher ratio increases its effectiveness. Clayton usually works with one or two students at a time. And a benefit for New Leaf and other private schools for teens is that students may start the program at any time during the school year.

Targeting Specific Skill Deficits

The Orton-Gillingham approach allows staff at New Leaf to use a more intensive method of reaching the school’s growing group of low-level readers. Generally, if a girl is two or more years behind in her reading level, she’ll be taught with the Orton-Gillingham approach. Fifteen to 20 percent of the school’s students are in the Orton-Gillingham program, which also is useful for pupils who have trouble with specific language arts skills. Some girls use the program every day while others may take part one or two days a week.

“It pulls out those specific skill deficits that need to be addressed, and lets you rebuild those skills without having to hold the student back year after year,” Tomes says.

Emphasis on Repetition Helps Improve Retention

The Orton-Gillingham method is a structured approach that emphasizes repetition and review to improve retention. The program starts with single letters and the sounds they make, and builds on that with blends of two and three letters that make single sounds and then introduces multi-syllable words.

The beginning of the program focuses on a three-part drill. In the first session, Clayton uses flash cards with single letters and letter combinations to teach girls to identify sounds. In the second segment, students spell sounds by drawing with their fingers in colored sand. In the third part of the drill, girls learn to blend by tapping out each letter displayed on cards. Then they sound out what’s on every card and combine the letters to make a word.

The finger tapping is part of the multi-sensory component of the program. “It helps them to break a word down into its parts,” Clayton says.

The three-part drill is repeated every session until girls master the skills. In the more advanced part of the Orton-Gillingham program, students learn prefixes, suffixes, and Latin and Greek roots with the help of cards. “That’s really when their vocabulary starts to grow,” Clayton says.

Learning to Enjoy Reading

Most New Leaf students show improvement in reading with the Orton-Gillingham approach. The Orton-Gillingham method helps not only with English classes but also with social studies, science, and other courses that involve a significant amount of reading. 

“I’ve seen some pretty major growth and a lot more confidence in their reading. They feel a lot better about themselves in their reading ability,” Clayton says.

One New Leaf student with a learning disability moved up an entire reading level in about five months.

“Any time you can move up an entire grade level in less than six months, that’s great success,” Clayton says. “Her confidence as far as reading goes and academics in general has just soared. She has confidence in all subjects now that she didn’t have when I started working with her.”

Increased self-confidence in their abilities translates to greater enjoyment of reading by the girls, which also means more business for the school librarian.

“They’re reading more in the library and checking out more books,” Tomes says.

Jess Clarke is a freelance writer and editor based in Asheville, N.C.

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