What is Orton-Gillingham tutoring?
Orton-Gillingham is the teaching approach Missy uses to help students who find reading and spelling difficult, including students diagnosed with dyslexia, and it's designed to be direct, structured, and hands-on rather than left to chance.
Unlike a fixed curriculum or program, Orton-Gillingham is better described as a way of teaching. It gives a skilled, experienced instructor the flexibility to shape each lesson around the student in front of them, while still following a clear, logical sequence of skills. That combination, structure paired with flexibility, is part of what makes it effective for such a wide range of learners.
Where It Comes From
The approach traces back to the work of Samuel Orton, a neuropsychiatrist who, as early as the 1920s, was among the first to recognize dyslexia as an educational challenge rather than simply a medical one. Working alongside educator Anna Gillingham, the two developed instructional methods grounded in how people actually learn to read and write, and why that process breaks down for some learners. Their combined work, refined over the decades since, forms the foundation of the approach that carries their names today.
How It's Typically Used
Orton-Gillingham is most commonly taught one-on-one, which is exactly how Missy uses it. Working individually with a student allows lessons to move at their pace, rather than the pace of a classroom or a grade-level standard. While it can be adapted for small groups or classroom settings, one-on-one instruction remains where it's most effective, especially for students who need more focused support to catch up or keep pace.
Why It Works for Individualized Learning
Every student who comes to Orton-Gillingham tutoring is working toward the same goal: understanding how language works and how it connects to reading and writing. What differs is how much support each student needs to get there. Reading and spelling patterns that come naturally to many learners often have to be taught explicitly, piece by piece, for a student with dyslexia. Missy's role is to identify exactly where a student needs that direct instruction, then build a plan around it, adjusting as the student grows and their needs change.