Switch from Orton-Gillingham to EBLI? What Parents Need to Know

Switch from Orton-Gillingham to EBLI — those are words I am hearing from more and more parents lately.

Maybe your child has been receiving Orton-Gillingham instruction for a year or two.

Maybe they have made progress, and you are grateful for that progress, yet reading is still much harder than you expected it to be.

Or maybe another parent told you about EBLI. You saw a post online. You heard someone talking about speech-to-print instruction. And now you’re wondering:

Should we switch?

As a mom of children with Dyslexia, someone who is Dyslexic myself, and the founder of 3D Learning Experts, I understand why this isn’t an easy question.

I actually learned to read through Orton-Gillingham when I was nine years old. It changed my life. I taught my husband, daughter and son to read through Barton Readign and Spelling.

So I have tremendous respect for Orton-Gillingham.

I also believe we have to be willing to keep learning.

Today, families have access to different approaches to Structured Literacy, and EBLI is one of the options getting a lot of attention. At 3D Learning Experts, we offer both Orton-Gillingham and EBLI because I don’t believe every child should automatically be placed into the same program.

The question shouldn’t be:

Which program is getting the most attention right now?

The better question is:

Which approach makes the most sense for MY child?

Let’s talk about it.

Why Are Parents Considering a Switch from Orton-Gillingham to EBLI?

One of the biggest reasons parents begin exploring EBLI is simple:

They want to know whether their child could make progress more efficiently.

Some children have spent years in reading intervention.

Your child may have improved. They may know more phonics patterns. Their spelling may be better. Their reading accuracy may have increased.

Yet you still notices things like:

Reading is slow or exhausting.
The child has difficulty transferring learned skills into everyday reading.
Unfamiliar words still cause significant difficulty.
The child seems dependent on remembering rules.
Spelling remains inconsistent.
Reading fluency isn’t developing as quickly as expected.
You feel like intervention has become a permanent part of life.

This is often when parents start asking me about EBLI.

And I think asking questions is a good thing.

It doesn’t mean Orton-Gillingham “failed.”

It doesn’t mean you chose the wrong intervention.

And it certainly doesn’t mean your child’s previous work was wasted.

It means you’re paying attention to your child’s progress and asking whether their current instruction is still the best fit.

That is exactly what parents should be doing.

Orton-Gillingham and EBLI Have More in Common Than You May Think

Before we talk about the differences, let’s clear up something important.

This isn’t a choice between structured instruction and unstructured instruction.

The International Dyslexia Association describes Structured Literacy as explicit, systematic instruction that addresses important components of language and literacy, including phoneme awareness, sound-symbol relationships, orthography, morphology, syntax, and semantics.

Orton-Gillingham has long been associated with this structured, explicit, multisensory approach to teaching reading.

EBLI, which stands for Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction, also explicitly teaches students how spoken sounds connect with written words.

Both approaches are trying to accomplish the same big goal:

Helping a child become an accurate, automatic, confident reader and speller.

Where they differ is in how they get there.

The Biggest Difference: Print-to-Speech vs. Speech-to-Print

This is probably the most important distinction for parents considering a switch from Orton-Gillingham to EBLI.

Orton-Gillingham: Generally Print-to-Speech

Traditional phonics and Orton-Gillingham-based instruction commonly put significant emphasis on teaching students the written code and helping them connect print to sounds.

A student sees letters or letter combinations and learns the sounds they represent.

Instruction is systematic and cumulative, and students typically progress through increasingly complex phonics concepts and patterns.

Depending on the specific Orton-Gillingham program or practitioner, students may learn syllable types, spelling rules, phonics patterns, morphology, and strategies for breaking longer words into manageable pieces.

For many students, this structure is incredibly helpful.

EBLI: Speech-to-Print

EBLI approaches the written code from another direction.

It starts with what the child already knows:

Speech.

The student begins with the sounds in spoken words and then connects those sounds to the letters or groups of letters that represent them.

Nora Chahbazi describes its approach as beginning with spoken sounds and mapping those sounds to print.

For example, instead of beginning with:

“What sound does this letter make?” instruction may begin by helping the student identify a sound in a spoken word and then discover the different ways that sound can be represented in print.

That distinction sounds small.

Instructionally, it can be significant.

English has approximately 44 speech sounds, yet those sounds can be represented by many different spellings.

Think about the long /ā/ sound:

cake

rain

play

eight

they

Same sound.

Different spellings.

A speech-to-print approach helps students understand that variability from the perspective of the sounds they already use every day.

Does That Mean EBLI Is Better Than Orton-Gillingham?

Not automatically.

And this is where I want parents to be careful.

When a new approach starts getting attention, it’s easy for the conversation online to become:

Old way = bad.

New way = good.

Learning isn’t that simple.

The International Dyslexia Association specifically notes that there isn’t one “best” Structured Literacy approach for every child with Dyslexia or learning difficulties.

Instead of asking which program is universally better, ask:

What does my child’s 3D Learning Profile tell us about how they learn best?

At 3D Learning Experts, we start with a 3D Learning Profile Assessment. We look at your child’s individual strengths, areas of need, and current skill levels so we can better understand where they’re getting stuck and which instructional approach may be the best fit.

Because the goal isn’t choosing the program everyone is talking about.

It’s choosing the approach that makes the most sense for your child.

5 Signs Your Child May Benefit from Switching from Orton-Gillingham to EBLI

There isn’t a single checklist that can tell you whether you should switch from Orton-Gillingham to EBLI, although there are situations that should make you stop and evaluate what is happening.

1. Your Child Has Had Significant Instruction Without Enough Progress

Time alone isn’t the deciding factor.

Progress is.

If your child has been receiving consistent, appropriate instruction and their reading skills are improving steadily, I wouldn’t switch simply because another program is popular.

On the other hand, if months or years are passing and you’re seeing very little measurable change, that deserves a closer look.

Ask:

What did my child know six months ago that they know now?

How has reading accuracy changed?

Has fluency improved?

Is spelling improving?

Are skills transferring into unfamiliar text?

You shouldn’t have to guess whether intervention is working.

This is one reason I talk so much about progress monitoring at 3D Learning Experts.

2. Your Child Knows the Rules Yet Struggles to Apply Them

Some students become very good at telling you phonics rules.

They can explain the rule.

Then you hand them a book and everything seems to disappear.

That gap between knowing something during instruction and automatically applying it while reading is important.

If your child has accumulated a lot of phonics knowledge yet still struggles to transfer those skills into authentic reading and spelling, it may be worth exploring a different instructional approach.

3. Progress Has Plateaued

Progress doesn’t happen in a perfectly straight line.

There will always be harder concepts and slower periods.

What concerns me is a true plateau.

If your child was making progress and has now been stuck in approximately the same place despite consistent instruction, don’t automatically assume they just need another year of the exact same thing.

Sometimes they need more time.

Sometimes they need a change in intensity.

And sometimes they need a different way of accessing the information.

4. Your Child Is Becoming Overwhelmed by Rules

Some learners thrive on rules and categories.

Others don’t.

If your child has difficulty remembering and retrieving multiple rules while simultaneously trying to decode a word, a speech-to-print approach may be worth exploring.

That doesn’t mean rules themselves are inherently bad.

It means we have to consider the child’s cognitive load and how efficiently they can use what they’re being taught.

5. Your Child’s Data Suggests Another Approach May Be More Efficient

This is the one I care about most.

Not what worked for your friend’s child.

Your child’s data.

What does your child’s assessment tell us about phonemic awareness, decoding, spelling, fluency, comprehension, and the ability to transfer learned skills?

That’s where the decision should start.

When Staying with Orton-Gillingham May Be the Better Choice

There’s another side to this conversation.

Sometimes I would not recommend switching.

If your child:

Is making consistent, measurable progress
Is retaining and applying what they’re learning
Is becoming more accurate and fluent
Is gaining confidence
Has not yet had sufficient time with appropriate instruction

then changing programs simply because EBLI is getting attention may interrupt something that is already working.

Parents understandably want the fastest path forward.

I do too.

And sometimes the fastest path is not changing paths when the current one is working.

Will My Child Lose Their Orton-Gillingham Progress If We Switch to EBLI?

This is one of the first questions parents ask me.

Generally, the skills your child has genuinely learned don’t simply disappear because the instructional methodology changes.

If your child has developed stronger phonemic awareness, learned sound-symbol relationships, improved decoding, expanded vocabulary, or become a stronger speller, those are skills they bring with them.

They aren’t starting over.

Think about it less like throwing away everything your child learned and more like changing the way we’re helping them organize and apply that knowledge.

There may be an adjustment period.

The language used by the instructor will be different.

Some strategies will change.

The way your child approaches an unfamiliar word may change.

That’s okay.

A well-planned transition should build from what the student already knows rather than pretending previous instruction never happened.

What Does the Research Say About Switching from Orton-Gillingham to EBLI?

EBLI reports positive outcomes and has published information and case-study data describing its implementation with struggling readers. A recent evaluation at Hyde Park Day School, for example, examined EBLI implementation with students who had significant learning disabilities affecting literacy.

That’s encouraging and worth paying attention to.

At the same time, I would be cautious about turning emerging evidence or individual case studies into a universal claim that every child should leave Orton-Gillingham for EBLI.

That’s a much bigger statement.

We shouldn’t be loyal to a program just because we’ve always used it.

And we shouldn’t abandon a program simply because something newer is getting attention.

We follow the student and the data.

Before You Switch from Orton-Gillingham to EBLI, Assess the Child

This may be the most important part of this entire blog.

Don’t change reading programs based solely on a program name.

Before making a change, we want to understand what your child can actually do independently.

At 3D Learning Experts, our 3D Learning Profile Assessment helps us identify a student’s current strengths and areas of need before recommending instruction.

Depending on the student’s needs, we may look at areas such as:

Phonemic awareness
Sound-symbol knowledge
Decoding
Encoding and spelling
Reading accuracy
Reading fluency
Reading comprehension
Skill retention and application

Then we look at the whole child.

How long have they been receiving intervention?

What kind?

How frequently?

What progress have they made?

Where are they still getting stuck?

What does their current instructor report?

What are the parents seeing at home?

And yes, I absolutely value parent intuition.

Parents see things that assessments don’t always capture.

You see the tears before reading homework.

You notice your child suddenly avoiding books.

You know when spelling words that seemed mastered last month suddenly disappear.

You know when your child is working incredibly hard without getting the results that effort should be producing.

Data matters.

So does what you’re seeing every day.

Don’t Switch Reading Programs Because the Internet Told You To

Parents of struggling readers are constantly being told about the next thing they “have” to try.

I’ve been that parent.

When your child is struggling, you will research everything.

You’ll stay up until midnight reading articles.

You’ll join Facebook groups.

You’ll listen to podcasts.

You’ll ask other parents.

You’ll Google things you never imagined you’d know this much about.

And sometimes that research leads you to exactly the information your child needs.

I encourage it.

Just don’t let someone else’s success story become your child’s diagnosis.

One child making tremendous progress with EBLI doesn’t mean every child should switch.

One child thriving with Orton-Gillingham doesn’t mean every child should stay.

Your child deserves an individualized decision.

Why 3D Learning Experts Offers Both Orton-Gillingham and EBLI

This is exactly why we’ve chosen to offer families more than one option at 3D Learning Experts.

We provide individualized, one-on-one virtual reading and spelling intervention, and our instructional options include both Orton-Gillingham and EBLI.

Why?

Because I don’t want to force a child into a methodology simply because it’s the only methodology we offer.

I’ve personally experienced the power of Orton-Gillingham.

I’ve watched structured, systematic instruction help students who believed they couldn’t learn to read.

And I’m also willing to embrace newer approaches when they may give a particular learner a more efficient path forward.

The program should fit the child. The child shouldn’t have to fit the program.

That is an important distinction.

Orton-Gillingham vs. EBLI: A Simple Parent Comparison

Orton-Gillingham	EBLI
Structured and explicit	Structured and explicit
Multisensory	Multimodal instruction
Traditionally emphasizes print-to-speech phonics	Emphasizes speech-to-print instruction
Systematic skill development	Explicit sound-to-print mapping
May include extensive work with phonics patterns, syllable types, and spelling conventions	Emphasizes the variability of how sounds are represented in English print
Long history in Dyslexia intervention	Newer approach increasingly discussed among educators and parents
Can be highly effective for appropriate learners	May provide another pathway for students who have plateaued or need a different approach

The goal isn’t to pick the winner from this chart.

The goal is to determine which instructional approach gives your child the clearest path toward independent reading and spelling.

So, Should You Switch from Orton-Gillingham to EBLI?

Maybe.

I know that’s probably not the simple answer you were hoping for.

Yet if someone tells you they can answer that question without knowing anything about your child, I would be cautious.

I would want to know:

Is your child making measurable progress?

Are they retaining what they’ve learned?

Can they transfer those skills into real reading and spelling?

Is their fluency improving?

How much intervention have they already received?

Where specifically are they getting stuck?

What does their learning profile tell us?

If your child is thriving with Orton-Gillingham, there may be no compelling reason to change.

If your child has received significant instruction and remains stuck, EBLI may be an option worth exploring.

And if you don’t know?

That’s when we assess.

You Don’t Have to Figure This Out Alone

I know how overwhelming this decision can feel because I’ve sat on the parent side of the table too.

You don’t need someone to sell you Orton-Gillingham.

And you don’t need someone to sell you EBLI.

You need someone to help you understand your child.

At 3D Learning Experts, we offer both approaches because our goal isn’t to enroll every student in the same reading program.

Our goal is to determine what your child needs and create an individualized plan around those needs.

If you’ve been wondering whether it’s time to switch from Orton-Gillingham to EBLI, or whether your child should stay exactly where they are, let’s start by looking at the bigger picture.

Schedule your FREE Clarity Call with 3D Learning Experts

We’ll talk about where your child is now, what’s working, what’s still difficult, and what your next step may look like.

Because the goal isn’t Orton-Gillingham.

The goal isn’t EBLI.

The goal is helping your child become the reader they are capable of becoming.

External Resources

For parents who want to learn more about the approaches discussed in this article: