“The single most important implication of research in dyslexia is not ensuring that we don’t derail the development of a future Leonardo or Edison; it is making sure that we do not miss the potential of any child. Not all children with dyslexia have extraordinary talents, but every one of them has a unique potential that all too often goes unrealized because we don’t know how to tap it.” —Maryanne Wolf, Proust and the Squid(1) Too often we focus solely on remediation for students with dyslexia; while that’s critical, it also is important to recognize the many strengths that individuals with dyslexia possess. [...]

What is Orton-Gillingham? To begin, a different question might be: who were Orton and Gillingham? Dr. Samuel Torrey Orton was a neuropsychiatrist and pathologist who, in the 1920s, became interested in studying children and adolescents who were not reading as expected despite average or above average intelligence. He described the students as having streshosymbolia, or “twisted symbols,” because many of them reversed their letters or read letter sounds in the wrong order in words.(1) Dr. Orton hypothesized that the brain organization of these students was different, and he experimented with multisensory methods to teach them to read and spell. Later, Dr. Orton worked with Anna [...]