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Most Orton-Gillingham scopes (actually all as far as I know) spend a sizable chunk of time initially on building accuracy and automaticity with the short or lax vowels (in closed syllables). That’s because these vowels are hard for people with phonemic processing problems to differentiate and, therefore, they struggle with the rapid, automated association with graphemes. Consider the issue with differentiating the vowels in <pen> and <pin>, for example.  Most general education “phonics” programs also start with short vowels, but they move quickly to the other patterns like words with r-controlled and silent –e vowels. That’s because kids with normal language processing don’t need much exposure to assimilate the sound-letter patterns. They seem to do it almost unconsciously.  But even very bright adults with dyslexia spectrum processing issues continue to struggle with short vowels.  This may be, in part, related to phonological memory issues in dyslexia.

Since the long or tense vowel sounds are the same as the letter names they have the advantage of those memory “hooks.”  After the short vowel patterns are nailed down most of the published O-G programs introduce the r-controlled vowels and/or the long vowel patterns (e.g., open syllables, silent –e syllables, or the tense vowel teams). The Wilson Method, for example, introduces the silent –e syllable type (like you suggest) right after short vowels are mastered. But, I know of no research that says it matters in what order the long vowel syllable types are introduced, as long as it’s done explicitly and systematically.  The main thing for a dyslexic reader is the material that they are given to read should have no (or very few) words with syllable patterns that they have not been taught explicitly.  You do not want a dyslexic to guess from context. You want them to decode the syllable patterns.

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