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. ;-)
(Continued below... )
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. ;-)
(Continued below... )
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
