What is Structured Literacy?

A structured literacy approach (aka, Orton-Gillingham) helps children overcome reading, spelling, and writing difficulties associated with learning disabilities. Developed in the early 1900s, Orton-Gillingham has been considered the “gold standard” for treating reading disorders, with decades of research supporting its effectiveness.

More recently called structured literacy, the method centers on several bedrock principles I’ve articulated and explained below, while also describing how Lexercise incorporates these principles into our online therapy.

If you remember nothing else from this article, remember this: Structured literacy is a science-backed approach to teaching students to read, write, and spell.  It is widely accepted as the world’s most effective way to teach foundational literacy to all students, especially struggling readers and writers. 

1. Multisensory

In an Orton-Gillingham (structured literacy) approach, sounds and letters are taught to your child using three main sensory pathways: sight, sound, and movement. Using multisensory methods alongside explicit instruction makes learning an active rather than a passive process. It focuses attention, raises awareness, and makes it easier for a student to remember and apply concepts automatically and effortlessly.  

2. Ordered Logically

We teach your child the structure of the English language in an organized and systematic way. In this approach, reading, spelling, and writing are taught in a connected, simultaneous manner, reinforcing their interrelationships. Our foundational literacy approach guides your child through the curriculum at the fastest possible pace while ensuring they build an understanding of concepts and mastery of the foundations for decoding, spelling, and comprehension.

3. Individualized

Students who have struggled with reading, writing, and spelling for years show tremendous progress in only a few months. Between the weekly lessons, your student will use our online games and targeted, shared activities to practice the concepts and skills covered in the lesson. This system of individually paced, conversational lessons, combined with coordinated, brief, frequent practice and progress monitoring.  

4. Sequenced and Cumulative

Weekly lessons start with simple concepts and progress to more complex ones, while also reviewing prior concepts. Our scope and sequence use a structured literacy progression, focusing on:

• The common spelling patterns for the 18 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds in English
• The six syllable types of English as a foundation for pronouncing and spelling the vowel in a single-syllable word.
• Neighborhood patterns to help predict how letter-sounds are pronounced and spelled
• Word-inquiry methods to scaffold pronunciation, spelling, and comprehension of words with multiple meaning units (e.g., prefixes, bases, and suffixes).  

When sequenced in a logical, cumulative fashion, these elements help a student decode and spell with confidence. 

5. Cognitive

We teach your child to use predictable patterns for reading and spelling instead of just guessing. Even the spelling of phonetically irregular words can make sense when properly explained. For example, the spelling of the word two makes sense when we connect the -tw- pattern to the number 2 and to word relatives like twelve, twenty, twin, twine, and twist. Your child will learn to think about and understand word elements in ways that build confidence and take the guesswork out of reading, spelling, and writing.  

6. Emotionally Sound

We realize that many struggling readers and writers have been misidentified as lazy or made to feel stupid when they are not. They may have developed anxiety related to reading and writing. Our intervention provides emotionally sound tools and strategies for dealing with anxiety and for developing a growth mindset, an understanding that errors are not failures but instead essential and useful for learning. These tools and strategies not only empower and supercharge Lexercise intervention but are also useful in the classroom and beyond.

Lexercise: Literacy Therapy That Works

Our intervention is based on the Science of Reading and the Science of Learning. Significant progress is typically achieved in a matter of months. For example, on average, Lexercise students improve reading by several grade levels in a semester. The Lexercise Structured Literacy Curriculum™ uses science-backed principles, combining:

Lexersise holds both ESSA Tier 3 and Tier 4 certifications as an evidence-based program.

Learn more about our online literacy intervention or speak to one of our specialists. We are here to help!