How to Review Old Skills in Orton-Gillingham

If your child could read a pattern last week but now seems to miss it completely, you are not imagining things. This happens all the time in structured reading practice. Children with dyslexia often need more review, more repetition, and more chances to come back to a skill after a break.

The good news is that forgetting does not always mean a skill was never learned. It often means the skill is not solid yet. Knowing how to review old skills in Orton-Gillingham can help you keep progress moving without making practice feel heavy.

Why old skills need review

Orton-Gillingham is designed to be cumulative. That means your child does not just learn a pattern once and move on forever. New skills are added, but older ones keep showing up in small ways.

This matters because many struggling readers can do a skill in the moment, then lose it when a new pattern is introduced. A child might read short vowel words well, then suddenly start guessing once silent e appears. That does not always mean silent e was the wrong next step. It may mean the older skill needs to stay in the mix.

Review helps your child:

• hold on to patterns they already learned
• connect old and new skills
• build accuracy over time
• feel more confident during reading

The goal is not to go backward. The goal is to keep the foundation strong while new learning is added.

What should review look like?

Review works best when it is short, planned, and mixed into regular practice. It does not need to become a full reteaching session every time.

A simple review might include:

• 3 to 5 sound cards from older lessons
• 5 word readings with a previously taught pattern
• 1 quick spelling word from an old concept
• a short decodable sentence that includes familiar skills

This kind of spiral review keeps old learning active without overwhelming your child.

Try to make review brief enough that your child still has energy for the new part of the lesson. For many children, five minutes is enough.

How do you know which old skills to review?

You do not need to review everything at once. Start with the skills your child is most likely to lose or confuse.

Good review targets often include:

• short vowel sounds
• blends and digraphs
• red words
• CVC and CCVC word patterns
• a recently taught phonics pattern that still feels shaky

Watch for patterns in your child’s mistakes. If they keep reading cap for cape, mixing up ch and sh, or forgetting a red word they knew last week, those are clues.

A good rule is to pull review from three places:

1. one older skill your child knows fairly well
2. one skill that is still weak
3. one skill taught recently

That mix helps practice feel successful while still giving useful support.

When is review enough, and when do you need to slow down?

Sometimes a child just needs a quick refresher. Other times, they need more than review.

Review is usually enough when your child:

• gets the skill right after one prompt
• makes occasional mistakes but can self-correct
• seems rusty, not completely lost

You may need to slow down more when your child:

• misses the same pattern again and again
• cannot explain what the pattern is doing
• becomes overwhelmed as soon as the skill appears
• starts guessing instead of decoding

If that happens, pause new material for a few days and give the older skill more focused practice.

You might also find this helpful: When to Repeat an Orton-Gillingham Lesson

A real-life example

Let’s say Mia has been working on silent e words. At first, she reads bike, cane, and hope correctly during practice. A few days later, she starts reading bike as bick and hope as hop.

Her mom worries that silent e was introduced too soon. But when they look closer, Mia is not totally lost. She can still explain that the e makes the vowel say its name. She just is not applying it consistently.

Instead of reteaching the whole concept from scratch, her mom adds a short review at the start of each session:

• two short vowel words like hop and cap
• two silent e words like hope and cape
• one quick comparison, such as cap/cape
• one sentence with both patterns

After several short review rounds, Mia starts noticing the difference more reliably. The skill becomes more automatic because it keeps coming back in a manageable way.

Simple ways to review old skills at home

Here are a few realistic ways to make review easier:

Keep a small review stack

Use a few sound cards, word cards, or red word cards from older lessons. Rotate them instead of reviewing everything every day.

Compare old and new patterns

Put two similar words side by side, like kit/kite or mad/made. This helps your child notice what changed.

Reuse mastered skills in dictation and reading

Even when teaching something new, include one or two older words in spelling or sentence practice.

Stop before your child is worn out

Review should help your child feel grounded, not exhausted. Short and steady usually works better than long and intense.

Conclusion

If your child forgets old patterns during reading practice, that does not mean they are failing. It usually means they need more structured review. When you review old skills in Orton-Gillingham in a short, consistent way, you help learning stick and make new steps feel less shaky.

You do not need to review everything every day. A few well-chosen minutes can make a real difference.

If you want extra support between lessons, ReadGenie gives children structured reading practice with decodable text, repetition, and skill-building routines designed for struggling readers. You can explore it here: App Store and Google Play.