Why Choose Orton Gillingham?
The Orton Gillingham (OG) Approach is not a published program, rather, it is an approach that is considered to be best practice for intervention with people who have language processing differences like dyslexia.
While OG is not tied to any box of materials or any specific scope & sequence various companies have published programs derived from OG. You might think of these as "grandchildren” programs. Some of these programs include: The Wilson Reading Program®, Slingerland®, Sonday®, The Herman Method®, The Language! Curriculum® & The Barton System®. The Lindamood Individual Phoneme Sequencing (LiPS) Program®, while not strictly an OG Approach, has a number of similarities and fits the definition of a structured language approach.
Each “grandchild” program has its own shtick or twist. For example, LiPS® emphasizes articulatory feedback, Slingerland® and Wilson® were developed for use with school groups. Barton® is designed with video tutorials for parents.
Where the Rubber Hits the Road:
There is little or no research to suggest that one OG "grandchild" program works any better than another, but there is a lot of evidence that children’s outcomes are highly related to what their teacher knows about the structure of English. The advantages to learning to use OG as an approach as compared to learning a published program can be summarized as follows:
OG as an Approach
If you learn OG as an approach you aren't tied to one set of materials or one scope & sequence. You can better use clinical reasoning to individualize and adapt to the needs of the student. Learning OG as an approach stimulates you to think deeply about the methods.
OG as a Published Program
If you use OG as a published program you don't have to know as much or think as much. You have one set of scripted materials and they are all in the publisher's box and you are not expected to think outside that box.
While the Orton-Gillingham (OG) Approach is decades old, the methodology continues to be influenced by best-practice research and by the new technologies.
Adapted from: What is Orton-Gillingham and who are its "grandchildren?” by Sandie Barrie-Blackley
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