The education trends parents should know more about.

Your child is struggling to sound out words, write simple sentences, and solve even single-step math word problems. He has a learning disability and is drowning in school, as he watches his peers learn to read, write, and calculate with ease. You have tried just about everything to help him—workbooks, flash cards, drills, computer games, and the like—but nothing seems to be working. We now know that using evidence-based techniques for teaching students with learning disabilities, a trend in special education, can solve this long-standing dilemma of how to truly help struggling learners. So, what exactly are evidence-based techniques, and how can you reinforce this instruction at home?

Several techniques and interventions for students with learning disabilities are scientifically-based and have been found to be effective. One such technique is direct instruction, which uses straightforward techniques to explain a concept, and can help a student with a learning disability retain new material. For instance, an instructor might directly teach students that proper nouns or new sentences always begin with a capital letter—or they might directly explain the “floss” spelling rule, where we double the last letter if a single syllable word ends with an f, l, or s.

Strategy instruction is also evidence-based, and is an effective tool for students with learning disabilities. With this technique, a teacher provides a clear strategy that helps students come up with a response or solve a problem. For instance, the “OINS” strategy can help students with learning disabilities solve math word problems in an organized fashion. With this strategy, students read a word problem, then break it down into four steps: O (Operation, where they write down correct operation symbol), I (Information, where they write the relevant information needed for solving the problem), N (Number Sentence, where they write the complete number sentence), and S (Solution Sentence, where they write the solution to the problem as a full sentence).

For reading, however, using a sequential, multi-sensory approach has been considered one of the most effective evidence-based approaches for teaching students with learning disabilities. Multi-sensory instruction engages more than one sense at a time. As a basic example, your child may learn about shells in school. Rather than simply reading about them in a book, he may collect shells in their natural environment, then feel them, smell them, and even put them to his ear to listen to the sounds they may project. He might also search for facts about shells online, forming a connection with this information from the visual, auditory, and tactile modalities he used when studying the shells.

Multi-sensory instruction can help students with dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities in particular develop their basic reading skills. Orton Gillingham pioneered this approach, by helping students make connections between letters and sounds and learning to blend these sounds together to form words. Many Orton Gillingham-based programs now exist, but they all share the common elements of using the auditory, visual, and tactile approaches to help students develop their reading skills. Some multi-sensory components of these programs, many of which you can reinforce at home, are detailed as follows:

Audio-visual card drills: Students learn to connect a given letter and sound to a key picture. The letter is often written on the front of a flash card with a key picture on the back—like P (on the front) and pizza (on the back), or a (on the front) and apple (on the back). An instructor might orally model to the student that “P makes the sound p, like in ‘pizza’” and have the student repeat back that sequence.

Sand or shaving cream writing: Using a tactile tool like sand or shaving cream can help students further connect letters to sounds and remember these connections for the long run. In doing so, they trace a letter in the sand or shaving cream while saying its formation. For instance, when writing the letter P, they would say aloud, “around, down, and across” as they write the letter—followed by the sound it makes, which in this case is p.

Skywriting: Students utilize muscle memory with sky writing to help them further connect sounds to letters and form the letters properly when writing. They may stand up and use their gross motor muscles to write a letter formation in the sky with their pointer and middle fingers, like “down and across” for the letter T.

Magnetic tiles: Students can learn to effectively combine sounds to form words using a multi-sensory tool such as magnetic tiles. An instructor may dictate, for instance, the word “cat,” and ask the student to spell the word using magnetic tiles. The student would select from a group of letters first the letter C (which says c), then the letter A (which says a) and finally the letter T (which says t)—then blend those sounds together to form the word.

Students with learning disabilities often continue to struggle as they progress through school and the academic demands increase. Yet the trend towards evidence-based instruction in the classroom can help ease this struggle, ultimately helping students with learning disabilities feel confident and successful in school.

The post Evidence-Based Instruction Opens Doors For Students With Special Needs appeared first on EBL Coaching.

The Orton Gillingham tutoring that EBL Coaching provides starts at the student’s initial levels and teaches them phonetic sounds and concepts by integrating the visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic modalities. Our Orton Gillingham tutoring utilizes tools such as colored sand, shaving cream, magnetic tiles, white boards, and learning games to help students develop their reading and spelling skills. The Orton Gillingham tutoring we provide can take place either at your home or at one of our learning centers, as well as virtually. Our Orton Gillingham materials and workbooks help reinforce the concepts learned from students’ Orton Gillingham tutoring.

Every student learns differently, and EBL Coaching is always focused on the specific needs of each individual student.

What is Orton Gillingham?

The Orton Gillingham approach is a multi-sensory, language-based methodology that has been used since the 1930’s. The method teaches the basics of forming words using the auditory, visual, and kinesthetic modalities simultaneously. It is flexible, individualized to the needs of each student, and integrates:

• Phonemic awareness
• Phonics
• Vocabulary
• Reading fluency
• Comprehension

When working with students who have learning disabilities, EBL Coaching provides individualized Orton Gillingham instruction that is consistently adjusted as the student progresses, to best suit their needs. With our specialized tutoring program, EBL Coaching provides Orton Gillingham instruction and integrates multi-sensory techniques to help students with dyslexia develop stronger skills and strengthen their self-esteem.

Our Orton Gillingham tutoring engages students and helps them enjoy learning while building their fundamental reading and writing skills. The tutors providing this instruction are highly experienced in working with students who have academic skills difficulties, as well as those with learning disabilities, ADHD, dyslexia, and executive functioning challenges. Our methods are effective and evidence-based. Whether you bring your child to one of our learning centers or prefer an in-home Orton Gillingham tutor, your child will receive individualized, research-based instruction that is custom-tailored to their needs. Students with academic challenges, learning disabilities, dyslexia, focusing difficulties, or ADHD all benefit from this instruction. Read more at How to Improve Your Dyslexic Child’s Reading Skills – EBL Coaching.

As a supplement to our teaching methods, we also utilize multiple evidence-based, multi-sensory workbooks designed to help children build their reading, writing, math, phonemic awareness, note taking, test taking, executive functioning, and auditory processing skills. Our EBL Coaching learning centers use these and other research-based techniques that are most appropriate for the needs of each child. Using our Flags and Stars Orton Gillingham materials, EBL Coaching helps students build their reading, writing, phonemic awareness, and fluency skills. With our dyslexia tutoring, we integrate these materials and corresponding manipulatives to provide multi-sensory instruction that helps students with dyslexia build their academic skills and develop a stronger self-esteem.

While the Orton Gillingham approach was originally designed for students with learning disabilities, this method can help all children improve their reading and spelling skills. The 26 letters in the English language combine into 44 speech sounds, with hundreds of ways to spell these sounds. Our tutoring program integrates engaging multi-sensory tools to supplement the Orton Gillingham method, including magnetic tiles, white boards, colored sand, shaving cream, and learning games to help make learning fun while solidifying these important skills. Students with reading and writing challenges, learning disabilities, dyslexia, and ADHD all benefit from this type of learning.

Learn more about resources for dyslexia at Home | Dylexia Resources.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Orton Gillingham research-based?
Yes! Orton Gillingham is a research-based, multi-sensory approach that helps students develop their reading and spelling skills. It is systematic and individualized to each student’s needs, integrating previously taught concepts as new concepts are introduced.

How is Orton Gillingham different from Wilson?
Orton Gillingham is a multi-sensory, flexible, individualized approach that helps students with dyslexia and reading challenges develop their reading and spelling skills. Wilson is a step-by-step program and workbook series that is based on Orton Gillingham principles.

How long does Orton Gillingham tutoring take?
All students respond at a different pace to tutoring but because of the effectiveness of the Orton Gillingham approach, we tend to see positive changes quickly. Frequency of sessions also plays a role in a student’s progress.

Do you offer Orton Gillingham tutoring in-home in NYC and NJ?
Yes! We offer Orton Gillingham tutoring at the home in NYC and all surrounding areas. We also offer in-home Orton Gillingham tutoring in Bergen County, NJ and the surrounding areas. Additionally, we offer tutoring virtually and at our learning centers.

The post Who Benefits from Orton Gillingham Tutoring? appeared first on EBL Coaching.