Anna Gillingham (1878–1963) was an educator and psychologist. Working with Dr. Samuel Orton, she trained teachers and published instructional materials regarding reading instruction, producing the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction. With Bessie Stillman, she wrote what has become the Orton–Gillingham manual: Remedial Training for Children with Specific Disability in Reading, Spelling and Penmanship. First published in 1935/6, this work is updated and republished regularly. Along with the help of Stillman, Gillingham developed a “sequential, alphabetic-phonetic multisensory program” as a tool with which students could easily create meaningful syllables. This approach eliminated the need for a child to memorize almost all words in language, limiting it to those that were non-phonetic. This teaching manual for the “alphabetic method” of Orton’s theories combined multisensory techniques with teaching the structure of written English, including sounds (phonemes), meaning units (morphemes such as prefixes, suffixes, and roots) and common spelling rules.
Anna Gillingham devoted her life to the maxim that in teaching, “one should establish associations involving the simplest possible units and should use carious reinforcement techniques” to create solid association links. Alongside the practicing and development of her techniques, Gillingham began working with Dr. Henry Goddard – known for his adaptation and translation of the French Simon and Binet tests for use in determining superior intelligence, thus becoming the first school psychologist in the country.
After giving up her quest for a Ph.D., Gillingham—with Stillman—set out on the methodical sorting of the English language. They sorted words that contain carious single phonograms, digraphs and diphthongs, and those that follow particular patterns of syllable division. They developed spelling rules and exceptions, determined which spellings of vowel sounds occurred with the greatest frequency, and then developed procedures for mastering nonphonetic words. At the age of 69 Gillingham began work as a consultant for several schools in the country to supervise her remedial and preventative programs, train teachers for individual student teaching, and train classroom teachers.