Chicago Home Tutor is your source for in-home Orton-Gillingham tutors in the city of Chicago and throughout the suburbs. In today’s article, we’re excited to share more about one of our most requested services: Orton-Gillingham tutoring.

What is Orton-Gillingham?

Orton-Gillingham (also known as the Orton or O-G method) is an example of a multi-sensory reading program. The theory behind this type of program is that while most children are taught to read relying primarily on visual information, integrating more than one type of sensory input will help them process the information in a different and deeper way. 

Examples of multi-sensory reading activities are:

• pairing tactile sensations (e.g. sandpaper or shaving cream) with letter names or sounds

• relating colors with a certain vowel or consonant groups

• Finger tapping to separate phonemes

An O-G session can include these types of activities and more! The US Department of Education’s Institute for Educational Science says that Orton “teaching sessions are action-oriented with auditory, visual, and kinesthetic elements reinforcing one another.”

Who does Orton-Gillingham help?

Multi-sensory approaches like O-G are often prescribed by neuropsychologists for students with learning disabilities in reading like dyslexia. The action-oriented, multi-sensory components can also be really engaging and effective for students with ADHD.

Orton-Gillingham is built on a foundation of structured, direct, explicit instruction, so it can be a great approach for all learners. It is phonics-based which is an effective method for many children to learn how to read. It teaches students to connect letters with their sounds and then build reading skills from this strong foundation.

Where did Orton-Gillingham come from? 

“Orton-Gillingham” is a long and unusual name! It comes from the names of its creators: Samuel Orton, a neuropsychiatrist at Columbia who studied children with dyslexia, and Anna Gillingham, an educator and psychologist. They developed the foundations of O-G together in the early 20th century.

O-G is often called the grandfather of multi-sensory reading approaches since it was the first of its kind. Since its inception, there have been at least 15 commercial programs developed based on its foundations.

What makes an effective Orton-Gillingham tutor?

There are many different training programs and certifications out there, and we’ve had great experiences with many of them!

We here at Chicago Home Tutor believe that it’s important that our multi-sensory tutors are not only trained in O-G but that they often have a professional background in education. This helps them draw from a diverse base of strategies for their students so that they can individualize their approaches to your student.

All of our tutors in Chicago are professional, career educators. When families request an Orton tutor with us, they get the guarantee of having a specialist trained teacher who also has the additional multi-sensory training that Orton-Gillingham provides.

Does Chicago Home Tutor offer Orton-Gillingham tutoring near me?

We provide this specialized reading instruction to students wherever they need us: in-home throughout Chicagoland, in schools and medical settings, and nationwide online. 

Our Orton-Gillingham tutors serve students in the City of Chicago and its suburbs including but not limited to Naperville, Oak Park, Evanston, Schaumburg, and Arlington Heights. 

Contact us to set up a free consultation. We’d love to discuss your needs for an Orton-Gillingham tutor and answer any questions you’ve got!

About the author:

Laura Reber is a school psychologist and founder of Chicago Home Tutor. Chicago Home Tutor has helped hundreds of students turn learning challenges into life-changing achievements.