Since this blog and its over 500 entries are not entirely about dyslexia/reading disabilities, I was determined for this week not to continue going down the “dyslexia rabbit hole.”
But, as I was organizing books on my shelf (yes, I still have hard bound physical books), a few caught my eye and there I was back down the hole again.
Many parents come to me and say the school is not doing the right thing by not giving their child the “Orton-Gillingham” methods or its spin-offs like Wilson (an Orton-based program).
I often ask them what they know about the Orton methods. Typically, I get an understandable shrug and a sheepish, “not much.”
Here’s something to ponder about Orton-Gillingham – Sam Orton, M.D., a neurologist and psychiatrist was born in 1879!!!!!
Yep, 1879!
The current methods, while somewhat modernized under the category of “putting old wine in new bottles,” are almost unchanged since Dr. Orton collaborated with Anna Gillingham in the 1930’s.
That fact continues to boggle my mind.
From a couple of the musty books on my shelf are some quotes from Orton’s 1930’s text, “Reading, Writing & Speech Problems in Children.”
“The children with a specific reading disability are almost never reading for a pastime. Their whole tendency is to turn to athletics or mechanics or social activities as an outlet.”
“With cases of reading disability encountered somewhat later in their school progress, the feeling of inferiority is apt to be marked as a result of their repeated failures.”
“Intelligence does not always correlate with reading skill and in any group of nonreaders all ranges of intelligence are to be found as they would be in any casually selected group of people.”
These quotes could be from any modern day researcher.
More next week as I continue to go further down the hole.
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