What I Learned Looking For an Orton Gillingham Tutor For My 3rd Grader
The rain streaked the minivan windows as my 8-year-old, Eli, shoved a crumpled spelling test into my lap. Thirteen words misspelled, 10 of them the same words he’d gotten wrong on the test two weeks prior. “I’m stupid,” he mumbled, staring at his scuffed sneakers. We’d gotten his dyslexia diagnosis two months earlier, and the school’s special education block gave him 30 minutes of reading support a week. It wasn’t enough. I’d heard over and over that Orton Gillingham was the approach that worked for dyslexic kids, so I started looking for a tutor.
I began the way most parents do: I typed “Orton Gillingham tutor near me” into Google and clicked through the first page of results. Nearly every tutor on the list mentioned OG training on their website, so I started cold calling. The first person I spoke with ran a tutoring center out of her basement, and her homepage advertised OG in big bold letters. When I asked how much training she’d had, she said she’d completed a one-hour online workshop through a reading curriculum company, and used OG strategies with all her reading students. When I asked what those strategies looked like in a typical lesson, she said “we work on building reading confidence.” That was it. I hung up and realized I had no idea what I was actually looking for—OG was just a buzzword I’d memorized, not something I understood.
I scheduled coffee with Eli’s school reading specialist after our next parent-teacher conference to ask for advice. She told me the first mistake most parents make is assuming any mention of Orton Gillingham on a website means proper training. “OG isn’t a worksheet pack you can buy and use,” she said. “It’s a one-on-one, structured approach that trains you to adjust every lesson to how a kid’s brain works. It takes real practice to get right.” She gave me three quick, concrete checks to keep in mind that I’ve since passed on to every other parent asking for advice: First, look for someone with at least 60 hours of structured OG coursework, plus a supervised practicum where they worked with students while a trained instructor gave feedback. Second, start your search with the directory from the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators, which weeds out people who just checked a box on their website. Third, cross off anyone who says they use OG for all ages and all learning differences—good OG tutors specialize in dyslexia and reading instruction, that’s it.
I pulled up the AOGPE directory that night and found three practitioners within a 20-minute drive of our house. One, a retired reading specialist named Ms. Rita, had three open 45-minute slots after school each week. We met her at the public library, where she tutors because she shares a home with her elderly mother and doesn’t have a quiet space to meet. She brought a plastic bin of sand trays, smooth wooden letter tiles, and a jar of dinosaur stickers for kids who get through their lesson work. Eli hid behind my leg the whole first meeting, so she pulled out the letter tiles and asked him if he wanted to sort them by straight lines and curves instead of doing a quick assessment. He said yes, and did it for 10 minutes without complaining, which is a miracle for an 8-year-old who hates anything to do with school.
When we talked after Eli finished sorting, I asked her why she required three sessions a week, when every other tutor I’d contacted only offered once a week slots. “OG builds new connections for how the brain processes letters and sounds,” she said. “One session a week is like going to the gym once a month. You won’t see any real change.” I admitted her rate was more than we’d budgeted for, and she told me she kept two sliding scale spots each semester for families who needed it. She also told me to ask Eli’s IEP case manager about the district’s supplemental tutoring fund—something I had no idea existed. Turns out, our district sets aside money every year for outside tutoring for kids with dyslexia who don’t make enough progress with in-school support, and we qualified for half the cost covered. That was a game-changer.
It’s been three months now, and it’s not the miracle I secretly hoped for when I first started searching. Some Mondays, Eli drags his feet into the library, says he hates reading, and spends the first 10 minutes of lesson messing with the letter tiles instead of working. Last week, he still misspelled “because” and “said” on his spelling test, same as he did three months ago. Progress is slow, incremental, and easy to miss if you’re only looking at test scores.
But last Saturday, he sat down on the couch with his little sister and read the entire picture book about T-Rex he’d gotten for his birthday, out loud, all the way through. He only stumbled on four words, and he figured two of them out on his own before I could lean in to help. He closed the book and grinned at me, like he couldn’t believe it either.
A few things I wish I’d known before I started that I tell other parents now: Don’t be afraid to ask for proof of training upfront. It’s not rude—you’re paying for a specialized service, and you have a right to know what you’re getting. Ask straight out: How many hours of OG coursework have you completed, and did you do a supervised practicum? If someone can’t answer that clearly, keep looking. Second, always ask your special education case manager about supplemental tutoring funds before you rule out a tutor because of cost. Most districts don’t advertise this, but it’s part of many special education plans. Third, prioritize frequency over length or convenience. If your favorite tutor only has one open slot a week, see if they can split it into two 30-minute sessions instead of one 60-minute. Any more than 45 minutes at a time is too much for most elementary kids anyway.
We’re still six months away from Eli’s next formal evaluation, and I don’t know how much progress he’ll make by then. Some weeks it feels like we’re moving backwards, and I wonder if we’re doing enough. But right now, Eli will pick up a book to read for fun, something he never did before. That’s enough for me, for now.
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