Building Word Awareness: Introducing Morphology from the Start

We recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Casey Welsh for a conversation about infusing morphology thoughtfully and effectively into our Orton-Gillingham lessons.

Casey Welsh is an Accredited Training Fellow with OGA and has her M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction, focusing on Dyslexia Studies & Language-Based Learning Disabilities. She is the CEO of Savannah Dyslexia, a private practice in Savannah, GA, focused on providing OG intervention, professional development courses for classroom teachers, and mentoring trainees through training and practicum for OGA Associate, Certified, and Fellow level credentials. As a mom of two dyslexic sons, Casey has a deep belief in the impact of the Orton-Gillingham approach on students’ lives and a drive to ensure more teachers and interventionists are empowered with the knowledge and tools to reach more students. 

One of the most common questions we get from educators, especially those new to structured literacy or Orton-Gillingham, is “When should I start teaching morphology?” The answer? Much earlier than you might think.

Morphological awareness doesn’t have to wait until kids have mastered all phoneme-grapheme correspondences. We can start teaching morphological concepts from day one, especially through oral language. Even our youngest learners benefit from hearing and using morphemes in context. Think about words like cat and cats or jump and jumped. Those inflectional endings help students understand number, tense, and time, and are rooted in how we speak every day.

Once students have basic accuracy in decoding and encoding with consonants and short vowels, you can begin introducing morphology more formally in your reading and spelling instruction. And yes, even with kindergarteners! You’ll start to notice when students say things like, “I goed to the park,” a perfect opportunity to tune into their morphological development and use it as a teachable moment.

Why Teach Morphology Explicitly?

For students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences, explicit instruction in morphology is critical. It helps them:

• Recognize meaningful word parts (prefixes, bases, suffixes)
• Improve decoding and spelling
• Deepen vocabulary
• Strengthen comprehension and writing

Students often struggle to “hear” the boundaries in spoken words, whether it’s individual sounds or morphemes. Just as we use phonological and phonemic awareness activities to address sound-level difficulties, we need to support their ability to recognize and manipulate meaningful word parts. For example, in the word relooked, students should learn to recognize re- (prefix), look (base), and -ed (suffix) and understand what each part contributes to the word.

So, Where Do You Start?

Start with what students already know, Anglo-Saxon words from oral language. These are high-frequency, everyday words that are packed with meaning. Introduce inflectional suffixes like -s, -ed, and -ing early on. These suffixes communicate essential grammatical information and help kids start making sense of written language.

Once students have a foundation, you can layer in other suffixes like -y, -ly, -ful, and -less, gradually expanding into more complex word forms and sentence structures. You’ll not only support reading and spelling but also reinforce grammar, writing, and comprehension.

From there, move into Latin-based morphemes for academic vocabulary, and later Greek roots to support content-area learning in science and math. The progression might look like this:

• Anglo-Saxon inflections and affixes
• Latin bases, prefixes, and suffixes
• Greek combining forms

Planning a Morphology Lesson

If you're new to planning morphology instruction, start by remembering that much of what you’re already doing stays the same. You’ll still use:

• Direct, explicit instruction
• “I do, we do, you do” scaffolding
• Multisensory techniques
• Word, sentence, and text-level practice
• Spiraled review connected to prior knowledge

What changes is the depth of instruction. Instead of just connecting sounds to letters, now you’re helping students understand meaning and structure. When you introduce a morpheme like -y, connect it to previously learned spelling rules, then build meaning and usage: What does “dirty” mean? What does the suffix tell us? Encourage students to build and expand sentences using their new knowledge.

Visuals also go a long way by using pictures or visual prompts to solidify the meaning of new morphemes, especially as you get into Latin and Greek.

Final Thoughts

Orton-Gillingham isn’t “just phonics.” It’s a comprehensive approach to building language at every level: phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic. Morphology instruction is one of the richest, most powerful ways to give students tools they can use across reading, writing, and thinking. Start early. Stay consistent. And don’t be afraid to get excited about word structure, it’s contagious!

For the full discussion, check out our latest episode of the Together in Literacy podcast. If you like what you hear, don’t forget to rate, leave a positive review, and subscribe!

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