Bessie Whitmore Stillman (1871-1947) was an educator and contributor to the

Orton-Gillingham The Orton-Gillingham approach is a multisensory phonics technique for remedial reading instruction developed in the early-20th century. It is practiced as a direct, explicit, cognitive, cumulative, and multi-sensory approach. While it is most comm ...

teaching method for students with disabilities in reading.

Career

Stillman was a teacher at the

Ethical Culture School Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS), also referred to as Fieldston, is a private independent school in New York City. The school is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. The school serves approximately 1,700 students with 480 facul ...

in New York when she met

Anna Gillingham Anna Gillingham (1878–1963) was an educator and psychologist, known for her contributions to the Orton-Gillingham method for teaching children with dyslexia how to read. Early life and education Gillingham was born on July 12, 1879. She was home ...

. She began collaborating to further develop the teaching procedures of

Samuel Orton Samuel Torrey Orton (October 15, 1879 – November 17, 1948) was an United States of America, American physician who pioneered the study of Learning disability, learning disabilities. He examined the causes and treatment of dyslexia. Career Ort ...

, devised to help readers with dyslexia. Gillingham and Stillman completed a remedial program called "The Alphabetic Method," which taught phonemes, morphemes and spelling rules through multisensory techniques. Gillingham published "The Alphabetic Method" in 1936. This later became known as the Orton-Gillingham method. During this time (1935-1937) Stillman worked and studied with Gillingham at the

Punahou School Punahou School (known as Oahu College until 1934) is a private, co-educational, college preparatory school in Honolulu, Hawaii. More than 3,700 students attend the school from kindergarten through twelfth grade, 12th grade. Protestant missionar ...

in Honolulu, Hawaii. There they trained and collaborated with Beth Slingerland, who adapted the Orton-Gillingham method also called the Orton-Gillingham-Stillman Method, for use in classrooms. The method involves teaching dyslexics with a multisensory approach. Stillman worked with Gillingham until her death in 1947.

Publications

In 1922, an essay by Stillman titled "School Excursions" was published in volume 22 of ''The Elementary School Journal''. Stillman's first book, ''Training Children to Study; Practical Suggestions'', was published in 1928. The first edition of ''The Gillingham Manual: Remedial Training for Children with Specific Disability in Reading, Spelling, and Penmanship'', (originally "The Alphabetic Method") was written by Gillingham and Stillman, and published in 1936. This is the manual through which the Orton-Gillingham method is still largely taught today, with the 8th edition published in 1997. In the preface of later editions, Gillingham noted that certain sections were largely the late Stillman's work, to the point that she could not bring herself to edit them.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stillman, Bessie 1871 births 1947 deaths Women educators Reading skill advocates