After more than thirty years of teaching, there is still no experience quite like when a child has "broken the code" Using the Orton-Gillingham approach ensures me of that thrill over and over again. It can take from two to five years for a student to become a proficient reader.
Dyslexia is different for everyone. Some students experience an "ah-ha" in the middle of a lesson and become readers after a relatively short time of exposure to the multisensory techniques of the approach. Others become readers in a quieter, less obvious way - one sequential step at a time. Either way, students enter the Resource Room as non-readers and leave as readers. The amount of time it takes is the amount of time it takes. Part of the Orton-Gillingham approach is to go "as fast as you can but as slow as you need to". There is a saying I borrowed from an adult with dyslexia which states "It is not how fast we learn that counts. It is learning that counts." I have adopted this for the Resource Room. I had it printed on my stationery.
The Orton-Gillingham approach does more than teach reading, handwriting, spelling and expressive writing. The approach helps children and adults experience the success that has eluded then for so many years. They gain the understanding that they are smart and talented. This realization may take years but it does happen. In my Resource Room there is another sign that says "Mistake is not a bad word." Orton-Gillingham gives students the tools for reading, writing, and spelling. The acquisition of these tools raises the feeling of self worth. Repair of the damage done to the psyche is as important as using the Orton-Gillingham approach. Drop in on one of the message boards where adult dyslexics are talking to each other and you will understand the long lasting devastation of not being taught the way you need to learn.
The Orton-Gillingham approach begins with teaching the sounds that letters make: Letters make sounds, sounds make words and syllables, words make sentences, and sentences make paragraphs. Paragraphs make stories and reports. The approach starts with single phonemes and progresses to multi-syllable words and the study of Greek and Latin roots and affixes. Children see and write each letter as they say and hear each sound. The lessons are integrated and children read everything they write. Writing is about one half of the approach. This approach is alphabetic-phonetic. It is synthetic-analytic (always working on putting words together and taking them apart). It is systematic, sequential, cumulative, cognitive and always involved with meaning.
When my feet hurt and my legs ache from climbing the three flights of stairs to the closet I have called my classroom for the last thirty years, I remember the child who said "I would never have had to stay back if I had come to you in the first place." Another comment keeps me climbing those stairs: "Ms. Palmenti, you could teach a stick to read." On a day when I could not get a group of children to pay attention, I asked the children why I should pay attention to them if they would not pay attention to me. They wrote their answers. One child wrote that "Ms. Palmenti should pay attention to me because I might say something important."
Yes, students with dyslexia have something important to say, "Teach me the way I need to learn." The Orton-Gillingham approach is the way. Success is never boring.
Jo Ann Palmenti
2000
