The Visual & Auditory Drills
Why You Should Never Skip these in an Orton Gillingham Lesson
If you have ever thought, “Do I really need to do the visual and auditory drill every day?” you are not alone.
Between tight schedules, testing, and student needs, it can feel tempting to skip these steps in an Orton Gillingham lesson and jump straight to new material.
But the visual and auditory drills are not just warm-ups or busywork. They are the foundation of every Orton Gillingham lesson and one of the most powerful ways to help your students become fluent, confident readers.
💡 The Brain’s Warm-Up
The visual drill and auditory drill prepare the reading brain just like stretching prepares an athlete.
- The visual drill strengthens the connection from print to sound—students see a grapheme (letter or letter team) and recall its matching phoneme(s) (sound).
- The auditory drill builds the opposite connection—students hear a sound and spell its corresponding letter(s) or spelling pattern.
Together, these drills train the brain to make instant phoneme-grapheme connections, building automaticity at the most foundational level.
And when automaticity is strong at the phoneme and grapheme level, it naturally supports automaticity at the word and sentence level. That is when fluent reading can truly happen.
🔬 The Science of Reading Connection
Fluent reading does not mean reading fast—it means reading effortlessly so the brain can focus on meaning.
When students practice the visual and auditory drills daily, they strengthen the neural pathways responsible for orthographic mapping, the brain process that stores words for instant recognition.
Without that repetition, the brain cannot make those connections stick. That is why the visual and auditory drills are non-negotiable—they are what make fluent, confident reading possible.
Skipping the drill is like skipping the most important part of your workout. You may save a few minutes, but you lose long-term progress.
🧩 Where the Visual & Auditory Drills Fit in the Orton Gillingham Lesson
Every Orton Gillingham lesson includes a visual drill and an auditory drill because these two routines activate the core parts of the reading brain before new learning begins.
They give students a quick, diagnostic review of what they already know and prepare them for new instruction.
The Orton Gillingham lesson moves simple to complex, so reviewing phoneme-grapheme level skills at the beginning of the lesson primes the brain for word and sentence-level work later on in the lesson.
While many emerging readers also benefit from a blending drill (part of the 3-part drill) that combines sounds into words, older or more advanced students may not need that additional step.
However, every student—at every level—benefits from the visual and auditory drills to maintain accuracy and automatic recall.
In just a few minutes, these drills strengthen previously taught concepts and set the stage for successful decoding and spelling practice.
🧰 Helpful Tips from a Fellow in Training
Here are some practical ways to make your visual and auditory drills more effective and time-efficient:
✅ Use ten phonogram cards at a time.
Work with the most recent ten graphemes introduced or the ten that need review. This keeps practice focused and manageable.
✅ Limit teacher language.
Keep your words brief so the student’s attention stays on connecting the sounds (phonemes) to the letters (graphemes).
✅ Make it multisensory.
During the visual drill, have students say the sound aloud while tracing the grapheme. During the auditory drill, they echo the sound and spell or write it simultaneously.
✅ Individualize your decks.
Whenever possible, create a separate phonogram card deck for each student. This helps you track which graphemes they have mastered and which need further review.
These simple tweaks turn a short routine into a powerful moment of brain-building practice.
🌟 The Result: Fluent, Confident Readers
When you consistently include the visual and auditory drills in your Orton Gillingham lessons, you are doing more than following a method—you are helping the brain build automaticity for reading success.
Students who practice these drills regularly begin to:
- Recognize letter-sound patterns automatically
- Read and spell more accurately
- Free up brainpower to focus on comprehension
- Gain confidence and solidify reading fluency
That is the goal of every Orton Gillingham teacher—to guide students toward reading with ease, accuracy, and joy.
✅ Want to Save Time Planning Your OG Lessons?
Explore my no-prep, science-of-reading aligned Orton Gillingham lesson templates and phonogram cards that make planning your visual and auditory drills simple, effective, and ready to use.
