OG on the Shore

A Therapeutic Tutor teaching a ‘Total Language Hour’ follows a curriculum which is the teaching of all of our language skills in a step-by-step systematic, sequential manner using the Orton-Gillingham approach. The language skills comprise: penmanship, alphabet/dictionary, sequencing, reading, spelling, phonics, morphology, composition and grammar. The therapeutic tutor considers the whole student, and challenges the student commensurate with his level and gives positive, valid encouragement through each lesson. A therapeutic environment refers to the total learning environment established by the tutor. It fosters healing and promotes cognitive, emotional and social growth. Who Will Benefit form this Remediation? Children who struggle with reading may have extraordinary musical talent, be able to build whole cities with tiny interlocking blocks or solve three-dimensional puzzles without difficulty. With proper direct instruction in a one to one session, a minimum of two hours per week, there is no limit to what these children can achieve. “Red Flags” that may indicate than an individual will struggle learning to read, write and spell are:
• Early speech mispronunciation
• Having a spoken vocabulary which exceeds reading ability
• Difficulty in retrieving words of common usage
• Reversing letters or syllables
• Difficulty sequencing days of the week, letters of the alphabet or even a set of oral instructions
• Spending too much time on tasks or not finishing assignments
• Propping one’s head up when writing
• Mixing cursive and manuscript letters
• Understanding math conceptually, but having difficulty reading and writing math problems
• Having a wide spread between performance and verbal scores on standardized tests
• Avoiding certain tasks, especially those involving reading, writing and spelling

While many of the behaviors may be perfectly normal and age appropriate, when the persist they many indicate a deeper difficulty.