Essex Literacy Center: Multisensory Reading and Writing Tutoring
and Enrichment

The mission of the Essex Literacy Center is to enable struggling learners and those with dyslexia to develop proficiency in literacy and foster a love of reading and writing through prescriptive, explicit, individualized, and engaging instruction and enrichment.

Tutoring can be virtual or in person, take place in your home or in one of our classrooms, located at 112 Broad Street in Bloomfield, New Jersey or at 248 Lorraine Ave in Upper Montclair, New Jersey.

The Orton-Gillingham approach is a multisensory phonics teaching approach for remedial reading instruction. It was developed in the early-20th century by Dr. Samuel Orton, a neuropsychologist and pathologist, and Anna Gillingham, a psychologist and educator to children with dyslexia and other language-processing differences. Dr. Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham, with their backgrounds in neuroscientific information, principles of remediation, and effective language education techniques, developed the groundbreaking Orton-Gillingham approach. It is still considered one of the most effective methods of teaching reading and writing to children with dyslexia and other learning differences.

The Orton-Gillingham approach is multisensory: It integrates kinesthetic and tactile learning strategies to teach visual and auditory concepts. While many commercial programs exist that are based on multisensory learning philosophies, true Orton-Gillingham instruction is individualized to the learner’s specific strengths and needs and is a prescriptive, explicit, direct, multisensory, structured, phonetic approach to teaching reading, writing, and spelling.

IMSLEC Orton-Gillingham certification requires the educator to complete over 70 hours of intensive coursework and over 200 hours of clinical practicums. To maintain this certification, educators must complete 50 hours of continuing education every two years in order to remain abreast of the latest strategies, research, and evidence and prove their practical experitise.

According to the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators (2018), “In the hands of a well-trained and experienced instructor, it is a powerful tool of exceptional breadth, depth, and flexibility.” At Essex Literacy Center, the tutoring and instruction is based on an authentic Orton-Gillingham approach so that any kind of learner may discover the magic of being a skilled reader and writer.

Sandra Mouro Marmolejos, MA, MEd, OG-T

My name is Sandra Mouro Marmolejos, and I am the founder of the Essex Literacy Center. For over sixteen years, I’ve taught students from preschool to college as an English language arts, special education, and Orton-Gillingham teacher. Out of all these specializations, the area of expertise that has proven to be the most remarkable is that of my training as a certified Orton-Gillingham teacher for children with dyslexia. 

My time as a public-school teacher and college instructor has allowed me to educate learners across all grades, skill levels, and backgrounds. Educating a spectrum of levels and learning styles has made one fact clear: There is a dire need for quality reading and language instruction. For this reason and my own family’s personal experience with dyslexia, I completed a post-graduate clinical certification as an Orton-Gillingham Teacher through Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Center for Dyslexia Studies. 

In 2016, my role and focus as a public school educator shifted to the neediest readers by becoming an interventionist.
Shortly after that, Essex Literacy Center was born as an extension of that shift and focus.