OG instruction is organized by the different types of syllables and the rules for both decoding (reading) and encoding (writing) them (like syllables -ight, -ave, and -ed). There is a large emphasis on the rules and “jingles” to remember them. Students may explore why the letter s sounds one way in the word plays but sounds different in the word snake. Students in OG are assessed initially to determine where in the program they need to start, and once they begin, the sessions are very specifically structured. Students don’t “skip ahead” if they are already familiar with a skill - they must check-off that skill before moving on to the next one. The mulit-sensory technique employed by

OG uses hand tapping/sliding and handwriting to connect sounds to letters through feeling. Instruction focuses on the meaning of words in OG instruction. Students are taught the meanings of various roots, prefixes, and suffixes which aids in comprehension. Lastly, OG instruction is meant to take place a few times per week for a few years.

LB has many similarities to OG, but the overall focus is different. The Seeing Stars® program (the intensive LB reading program) is organized by orthographic difficulty, or rather, the complexity of the letters and words. The program introduces rules, all of which have a verbal and visual cue, though the large focus is on sounds and how they work together. Initially, the focus is on individual letter sounds and learning to blend them together, but once the student shows proficiency in this, they move along to more difficult material. Letters and words are introduced in stages of increasing difficulty: first the single vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and individual consonants, before eventually introducing the teams: ea, oy, ar, etc. The multi-sensory technique in LB programs is air-writing, where the student uses their index fingers to write the letters in the air, forcing their brains to “see” the letters. Additionally, while there is no focus on the meaning behind the words in the LB reading program, there is explicit focus on Sight Words (words that don’t necessarily follow the sets of rules taught), both for decoding and encoding (reading and writing, respectively). Students learn that many words do not “play fair” and various strategies to “make” them play fair are employed (like thinking wed- nes- day when writing Wednesday). Finally, LB instruction is designed to take place every day for multiple hours per day, allowing students to make significant progress in a short amount of time (a month or two).

Both LB and OG methodologies are evidence-based, having years of research backing each of their approaches. Students who struggle more with phonological awareness (knowing which sounds come from which letters) may benefit more from the LB Seeing Stars® program, whereas a student who struggle more with segmenting and breaking words apart may benefit more from OG instruction. The differences between them come down to the specific steps of the program. Students with varying needs may benefit more from a certain type of instruction, so it is important to speak with a school psychologist, pediatrician, or your child’s teacher about their struggles and how best to approach addressing them.