What is Dyslexia?


The Orton-Gillingham instructional approach, developed by Dr. Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham, was developed for the estimated 10% of students in the school population with deficits in the area of reading, mainly those with Dyslexia. Although Dyslexia is a prevalent term and widely known by the general population, it is often misunderstood. Dyslexia is, “a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. There difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction” (Williams & Lynch, 2010, p. 66). Dyslexia often leads to difficulties in areas such as reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition and understanding, letter and sound associations, rhyming, and both letter and word reversals (Williams & Lynch, 2010, p. 66). As a specific learning disability, dyslexia affects more males than females, affecting between 3% and 10% of students (Snowling, 2013, p. 7). 
        The most important way to help students with Dyslexia is early identification and intervention (Lim & Oei, 2015, p. 375). Moreover, according to the National Reading Panel (2010), students with Dyslexia should receive "intensive systematic phonologically based training to remediate underlying phonological deficits and associated reading difficulties." One such remediation is the use of the Orton-Gillingham Approach. The OG approach is well suited and research-based to be effective with students with Dyslexia due to its  "systematic, analytic (application of rules), cognitive (consciousness of the thinking process), sequential and cumulative (moving from simple to complex) and emotionally sound manner" (Gillingham & Stillman, 1997). It is essential to note that the OG approach works most effectively when students enter the program as early as possible (Lim & Oei, 2015, p. 377). When used with students who are struggling with encoding and decoding the English Language, the OG Approach has been proven to improve standardized test scores, overall reading comprehension, spelling, oral reading fluency, and vocabulary development for students with Dyslexia (Lim & Oei, 2015, p. 384. 


References 
Gillingham, A. & Stillman, B. W. (1997) The Gillingham Manual: remedial
            training for students with specific disability in reading, spelling, and
            penmanship. Cambridge, MA: Educators Publishing Service, Inc.
Lim, L., & Oei, A. C. (2015). Reading and spelling gains following one year of
            Orton-Gillingham intervention in Singaporean students with dyslexia. British Journal of                        Special Education, 42(4), 374-389. 
National Reading Panel (2000) Teaching Children to Read: an evidence based
            assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its
            implications for reading instruction. Washington, DC: National Institute
            of Child Health and Human Development.
Snowling, M. J. (2013). Early identification and interventions for dyslexia: a
            contemporary view. Journal Of Research In Special Educational Needs, 13(1), 7-
            14. doi:10.1111/j.1471-3802.2012.01262.x
Williams, J. A., & Lynch, S. A. (2010). Dyslexia: What Teachers Need to Know. Kappa
            Delta Pi Record, 46(2), 66-70.

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