About Us

Bee Smart Concepts is the creator of structured literacy material and games that support the Orton-Gillingham approach and the science of reading.

Orton-Gillingham is a multi-faceted program that was created specifically for dyslexics but suitable for any student in a structured literacy program. With the Orton-Gillingham approach, one teaches reading, writing, and spelling by using auditory, visual, and tactile measures. Bee Smart takes Orton-Gillingham from just explicit (direct instruction) to implicit (games for re-enforcement) as well. Engaging a student in a game that supports developing that skill toward automaticity takes the “drill and kill” out of learning.

Take the boredom out of over learning with Bee Smart Concept’s games.  Students with working memory deficits require over 500 to 1500 repetitions to acquire automaticity for reading and spelling fluency. Most students can benefit from these games that are designed to support  structured literacy but students with poor working memory, slow processing speed or specific language disability, such as dyslexia, must master phonemes, syllable patterns, high frequency words and spelling generalizations.  Mastery comes with repetition but need not be boring and can be engaging.

Bee Smart games are used by Bee Smart trained tutors, parents and teachers in schools with small group resource programs.

Our Method: Mastery of the Sound Symbol Relationships

The Orton-Gillingham approach to reading, writing and spelling was created by Dr. Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham for the remedial instruction of dyslexic children. Structured, explicit, sequential, cumulative, multi-sensory strategies are incorporated in each lesson.

Alphabetic Phonics evolved from the O-G method as well as other variations on the method.

These games are not a substitute for direct explicit instruction; however, they are offered for the repetition required to master the sound symbol associations. For some students, that mastery can only be achieved through 500 to 1500 repetitions. Bee Smart tutors take the “drill to kill” out of learning with Bee Smart games.

An important part of sound / symbol mastery is the ability to segment words into phonemes. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language. The knowledge of the sound/symbol associations must be taught. Students must master the blending of sounds associated with letter symbols in sequence from left to right to make syllables which in turn make words and word parts.