Orton-Gillingham teaching sessions are action oriented with auditory, visual, and kinesthetic elements reinforcing each other for optimal learning. The student learns spelling simultaneously with reading. In this respect, Orton-Gillingham differs from traditional phonics instruction. Structured, Sequential, Cumulative. The Orton-Gillingham teacher introduces the elements of the language systematically.
Students begin by reading and writing sounds in isolation.
Then they blend the sounds into syllables and words. As students learn new material, they continue to review old material to the level of automaticity. The teacher addresses vocabulary, sentence structure, composition, and reading comprehension in a similar structured, sequential, and cumulative manner. Students learn about the history of the language and study the many generalizations and rules which govern its structure. Always the teacher seeks to understand how an individual learns and to devise appropriate teaching strategies.