HOW WE TEACH
We teach children how the written language system works
When a child is struggling with literacy, simply giving them more reading or spelling practice is not always the answer.
They may need someone to identify where the underlying process is breaking down and explicitly teach the knowledge and skills that have not yet become secure.
At the O-G Reading Clinic, students work through a specialist literacy program informed by the principles of Structured Literacy and Orton-Gillingham instruction.
Teaching is explicit, systematic, sequential and cumulative.
YOUR CHILD CAN’T READ CAT. WHAT DOES THAT TELL US?
Not enough. We need to know why.
CAT
Reading a three-letter word may look simple. The processes underneath it are not.
So what do we need to know?
HEAR IT
Can they identify each sound clearly?
Can they distinguish sounds without confusion?
Can they identify where each sound occurs in the word?
Can they maintain the sounds in the correct sequence?
CONNECT IT
Can they connect each sound to its written representation?
Can they move efficiently between sounds and letters?
WRITE IT
Can they recall the letter that represents each sound?
Can they form them accurately and fluently?
Is letter formation becoming automatic?
USE IT
Can they blend the sounds together to read the word?
Can they reverse the process — segmenting the word into sounds to spell it?
WHAT DOES SEQUENTIAL TEACHING ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE?
Skills are not introduced randomly. Each new concept is taught when the knowledge and skills needed to support it are sufficiently secure.
New learning is then practised alongside previously taught skills, so knowledge becomes increasingly connected, fluent and automatic.
FROM FIRST SOUNDS TO COMPLEX WORDS
Each step builds on knowledge that has already been taught, practised and strengthened.
1. BUILD THE FOUNDATIONS
Sounds ↔ letters
Sound position & sequence
Letter formation
CVC words: cat, sit, hop
Accurate blending & segmenting
2. INCREASE WORD COMPLEXITY
CVC → CVCC → CCVC → CCVCC
cat → hand → stop → grasp
Digraphs
Increasing blending load
Fluency and automaticity
3. LEARN HOW SPELLING WORKS
Spelling rules
Syllable types
Vowel patterns
Suffixing conventions
Multisyllable words
4. UNDERSTAND WORD STRUCTURE
Prefixes, bases & suffixes
Roots
Morphology
Word meaning
Increasingly complex text
ACCURACY → FLUENCY → AUTOMATICITY
Progress is not about racing through a program.
Students move forward when the knowledge and skills needed for the next step are sufficiently secure.
EVERY CHILD STARTS
FROM A DIFFERENT POINT
We identify what is secure, where the gaps are, and where teaching should begin.
Teaching starts from what the child needs — then builds systematically from there.