The Orton-Gillingham approach, explained honestly
Orton-Gillingham is the best-known name in dyslexia tutoring. Here is what it actually involves, what the research does and does not show, and how to judge any reading program or tutor on the features that matter.
Updated
Short answer
Is Orton-Gillingham an evidence-based way to teach reading?
Orton-Gillingham is a teaching approach for struggling readers, developed from the 1930s, that teaches letter-sound links explicitly, in a planned sequence, with constant review and multisensory activities. A 2021 meta-analysis of Orton-Gillingham interventions found no statistically significant effect on foundational reading skills, partly because few rigorous studies exist. Systematic phonics, which Orton-Gillingham includes, is the approach with the most consistent evidence in randomized trials with struggling readers.
- Orton-Gillingham is an approach, not a single program; many branded programs are based on it.
- Its core principles are explicit, systematic, sequential, cumulative and multisensory teaching.
- A 2021 meta-analysis of Orton-Gillingham studies found no statistically significant effect on foundational skills.
- Structured literacy is the broader term for teaching built on the same principles.
What the Orton-Gillingham approach is
Orton-Gillingham takes its name from Samuel Orton, a physician who studied children with reading difficulties in the 1920s and 1930s, and Anna Gillingham, an educator and psychologist who turned his ideas into a teaching method together with Bessie Stillman. Their manual became the starting point for a whole family of later programs and training courses.
It is best understood as an approach rather than a single product. Teachers are trained in its principles and then plan lessons around each child, so two Orton-Gillingham lessons can look quite different. Many commercial reading programs describe themselves as Orton-Gillingham based.
The principles most practitioners share are these:1
- Explicit: letter-sound links and spelling rules are taught directly, not left for the child to work out from reading.
- Systematic and sequential: skills follow a planned order, from simple sound-letter links such as short vowels and CVC words to digraphs, vowel teams and longer words.
- Cumulative: every lesson reviews what came before, so earlier patterns do not fade.
- Multisensory: children see, say, hear and write or trace letters, for example tapping out sounds while blending.
- Diagnostic and responsive: the teacher watches errors closely and adjusts the next lesson to them.
What an Orton-Gillingham lesson looks like
Lessons vary between tutors, but a typical Orton-Gillingham session moves through a familiar set of short activities. The pace is brisk and each part builds on the one before, so a child practises the same pattern in several ways within one lesson.1,2
- Review of sound cards: the tutor shows letters and letter groups learned so far, and the child says the sounds; then the tutor says sounds and the child writes the letters.
- A new concept: one new sound pattern or spelling rule, introduced explicitly, for example that ch often spells the first sound in chip. Our ch words list is organized the same way.
- Blending and word reading: the child reads single words with the new pattern and earlier ones, often including made-up words to check real decoding.
- Spelling and dictation: the tutor says words and short sentences, and the child spells them aloud, then writes them, checking each sound.
- Reading connected text: a short passage made mostly of patterns the child has already learned, so they can read it by sounding out rather than guessing.
What research says about Orton-Gillingham
Orton-Gillingham is widely used and many families and teachers value it, so it is worth being precise about the evidence. In 2021, Stevens and colleagues pooled the experimental studies of Orton-Gillingham interventions for students with or at risk of word-reading difficulties. The average effect on foundational reading skills was not statistically significant, and the authors pointed to the small number of rigorous studies as a major limitation.
That finding does not show that Orton-Gillingham lessons fail. It shows that the branded approach, as a whole, has not been proven to add an effect beyond what can be seen from the research so far. Individual children clearly do make progress in good Orton-Gillingham tutoring, but a meta-analysis asks a different question: whether the method reliably works across studies.
What does have strong evidence is the ingredient at the heart of Orton-Gillingham. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials with children and adolescents with reading disabilities found that systematic phonics instruction was the only approach with a statistically significant effect. Phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge are among the strongest predictors of learning to read, and sounding out new words is what lets children keep teaching themselves.
The honest summary: the principles that Orton-Gillingham shares with systematic phonics are well supported; the claim that the Orton-Gillingham brand is proven is not.1,3,4,2
Structured literacy and Orton-Gillingham
Structured literacy is the broader term that dyslexia organizations and many schools now use for teaching built on the same foundations: explicit, systematic and cumulative instruction in phonology, sound-symbol links, syllables, word parts, grammar and meaning. Orton-Gillingham is one tradition within structured literacy, not the whole of it.
The difference matters when you compare options. A school may say it does not offer Orton-Gillingham but still teach in a structured literacy way, with a clear phonics sequence and frequent review. Equally, a program with an Orton-Gillingham label can be delivered well or poorly. It is more useful to ask about the ingredients than about the brand.1,3
| Orton-Gillingham | Structured literacy | Systematic phonics | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A named teaching approach with its own training tradition | An umbrella term for explicit, sequenced literacy teaching | Teaching letter-sound links and blending in a planned order |
| Scope | Phonics, spelling, syllables, some vocabulary | Sounds, phonics, word parts, grammar, meaning | Mainly decoding and spelling |
| Delivery | Usually one-to-one or small group, by a trained teacher | Classroom, small group or one-to-one | Classroom, small group, one-to-one or software |
| Evidence | No significant pooled effect in a 2021 meta-analysis | Built from components with strong evidence | Most consistent effect in trials with struggling readers |
How to choose an Orton-Gillingham tutor or structured literacy program
Whether a tutor calls their work Orton-Gillingham, structured literacy or simply phonics, these questions will tell you more than a certificate on the wall:5,2
What will you teach first, and in what order?
A good answer names a sequence: which sounds and patterns come first, and how the child moves on. Vague answers such as "we follow the child" with no plan are a warning sign.
How do you check progress?
Look for regular, simple checks of word reading and spelling, including made-up words such as those on our nonsense words list, which show real decoding rather than memorized words.
How often and how long are sessions?
Short, frequent practice with spaced review tends to be remembered better than long, occasional sessions. Ask what practice happens between lessons.
How do you review old material?
Cumulative review should be built into every session, not saved for the end of a term.
What training do you have, and with which ages?
Training in any structured literacy method is useful; experience with children of your child's age and difficulty level matters as much.
How Dyslexia Steps relates to Orton-Gillingham
Dyslexia Steps is not an Orton-Gillingham program, and we do not use the name to describe it. The reading-games program follows structured literacy principles: explicit letter-sound teaching, a planned sequence, cumulative spaced review and short daily sessions, built on the systematic phonics approach that has the strongest trial evidence.
It is designed for daily practice at home, which works well alongside a tutor or school support rather than in place of skilled teaching. If you are not sure where your child's difficulties lie, the free dyslexia test gives a skills profile in about 8 minutes, and our free phonics word lists follow the same sound-by-sound order.3,5
