S.P.I.R.E. Orton-Gillingham Program Review

I am trained in Orton-Gillingham and have received questions about the S.P.I.R.E. reading program. It is a good program which I have personally looked at in the past. S.P.I.R.E. is clearly an Orton-Gillingham based program. However, please keep in mind, the level of ability of the child, the child's learning style, and the abilities of the person using the program play a key role in how 'effectively' a specific program works. So, when shopping for an Orton-Gillingham based reading program for YOUR child, you have to know your child's needs and your abilities before you can find the "right" program. Before continuing here, if you haven't already been there, you might find it helpful to look at "How to find 'Effective' Orton-Gillingham Programs" to learn more about selecting a program.

About S.P.I.R.E.: This program was written by an Orton-Gillingham Fellow and is written primarily for those trained in Orton-Gillingham. It would be essential for a person not Orton-Gillingham trained to get and follow the Teacher's Guides. You must be sure to incorporate the multi-sensory aspects of the lessons into your teaching. Without following activities in the teacher's guide, only using student materials would be like using any other written reading program. You'd loose all of the Orton-Gillingham aspects of the program and you might as well not be looking for an Orton-Gillingham program if you only get the student books. Getting the Teacher's Guides really helps an Orton-Gillingham trained person as well because then you don't have to think up multi-sensory activities every day. ;-)

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The key in any Orton-Gillingham program is in how well multi-sensory elements are utilized within the program. Success also will depend how much the child "needs" varied multi-sensory input. Any Orton-Gillingham based program can be good or bad depending upon how MUCH multi-sensory teaching is used and how it is used. It can also be good or bad for any given child, based upon the child's unique learning needs. For example, if a child is a visual learner and the program is heavily auditory in nature, then the child won't benefit as much from THAT Orton-Gillingham program, but would benefit more from a program that is more heavily focused on visual activities. You need all of the multisensory elements (Visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile) to reinforce learning and maximize retention, but a child usually has one or two ways of learning that are his primary learning channels.

If you look at the S.P.I.R.E. sample book, provided by www.EPSBooks.com, on Page 5 you can see the types of activities used in the multi-sensory teaching (http://www.epsbooks.com/downloads/samplers/S-spire.pdf). If you count the number of A's (Auditory), V's (Visual), and K's (Kinesthetic) elements in the left-hand column, you will find this program is more Auditory than Visual. And the Kinesthetic elements are the least in number and in effectiveness--moving a tile or flipping through cards are kinesthetic, but not in such a way as to reinforce the learned element.. tracing the items ON the card with a big toe on carpet or a bare finger on velvet would be much more effective as a kinesthetic activity.. SO.. If the child is a kinesthetic learner, this program would NOT be likely to be all that effective for that specific child without modifications to incorporate more effective kinesthetic activities. It would be a great program for a child who is primarily an auditory learner. It is still a great program for any child given the instructor is aware of the child's primary learning style and incorporates additional activities into the program based upon the child's needs. ;-)

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Overall, S.P.I.R.E. is a great program and can easily be modified to include additional elements for a tactile or kinesthetic learner. Visual elements are included in the student textbooks and may be sufficient to meet the needs of a visual learner. By incorporating additional tactile and kinesthetic activities into the program, this program can become virtually the "perfect" Orton-Gillingham based program. HOWever, if your child is primarily a tactile or kinesthetic learner and you are not inclined to add in kinesthetic and tactile activities, I'd recommend against using this program.

You can learn more about Multi-sensory instruction and HOW to assess your child's primary learning style by going through the short tutorial at: http://www.learningabledkids.com/multi_sensory_training/ -- It is free online and generally takes about 20-30 minutes to go through.

I don't know if that helps with your actual decision making about whether to use S.P.I.R.E., but it is what I know. ;-) S.P.I.R.E. is a good program, well worth using, and is definitely based upon Orton-Gillingham methods.

Best Wishes!
SandyKC