SLP in Orton-Gillingham classroom

Of the 6 syllable types, closed syllables are introduced the earliest in the O-G program. Upon reviewing my O-G training manual, there was no explanation as to why closed syllables should be introduced first in comparison to other syllables such as open syllables (e.g. no, we, I). Stanback (1992) analyzed some high frequency English words and found that closed syllables are the most frequently occurring type of syllables (43%). More importantly, the author looked into the predictability of the vowel sound across syllable types (i.e. short vowels in closed syllable and long vowel sound in open/silent-e syllables). It is found that the vowel sound is highly predicted (95% of the time) in a closed syllable. For open syllables, e, o, u sounds are highly predicted (about 90%) whereas a and i sounds are often pronounced as schwas in an multisyllabic word with open syllable (e.g. so·da, tu·na, an·i·mal).  

In the O-G approach, syllabication is practiced in every session until a child has mastered the skill. The step-by-step guide provides a framework for educators to scaffold the concept of syllabication. The O-G program explicitly teaches segmentation and decoding of the vowel sounds during syllabication practice. Because vowels can make both long and short sounds in English, this decoding step helps support other phonological awareness skills such as blending. Also, children are taught to use the ˘ symbol for short vowel sounds and the ¯ symbol for long vowel sounds. These visual reminders may seem unnecessary when decoding 1-syllable words, but they become very useful when decoding longer words. If we consider children with co-morbid impairments in phonological skills and working memory, these visual cues are essential to successful decoding of long words.