Free dyslexia resources from the American Dyslexia Association, all in one place: 1,500 printable worksheets, two worksheet generators, a word and a picture every day, ten math games in one app, and a learning platform for families. None of it costs money. Most of it needs no sign-up. We are publishing this list on International Literacy Day, which turns 60 today, because the day is about access, and access starts with price.
Why free, and why today
At least 739 million young people and adults still lack basic literacy skills, and 4 in 10 children do not reach the minimum level in reading. Those are UNESCO’s figures for International Literacy Day 2026, the sixtieth since UNESCO proclaimed the day in 1966. Nobody fixes that from Osprey, Florida. What a small association can do is remove the first barrier: no family and no teacher should have to pay to start. A child with dyslexia or dyscalculia does not need a miracle. The child needs practice that fits how he or she perceives letters and numbers, in small daily doses, from adults who stay calm. The free dyslexia resources below are built for that.
More on this topic: all of this stays free because the American Dyslexia Association is a nonprofit and a 501(c)(3) public charity. Read what ADA’s 501(c)(3) dyslexia charity status means for donors and members.
1,500 free worksheets, no sign-up
Our largest collection is the set of 1,500 free printable worksheets on this blog. They follow the three parts of the AFS-Method: attention, sensory perception (the “function” part), and symptom training in reading, writing, and math. Pick what fits your child, print it, use it at home or in class.
One rule before you print anything: do not start with the mistakes. A child who reverses letters or loses the line does not need the same exercise ten more times. The child needs a few minutes of perception training first, then one short reading or writing task. The worksheet post explains why practicing the errors alone does not work.
Every freebie on dyslexia.me is licensed under Creative Commons, so teachers may copy and share them. The Freebies section has the running list, and the association keeps its own free worksheet library on the ADA website.
Two worksheet generators
Two generators on this blog turn one word or a word list into practice sheets in seconds. The Handwriting Worksheet Wizard lets you choose print or cursive, the font size, and the line pattern. The Math Worksheet Wizard lets you choose the operations and the level, then prints arithmetic sheets for elementary school. Both are free for teachers and for parents who teach at home.
Something small every day
Short daily practice beats one long session on the weekend, so two of our sites publish something new every day.
Word of the Day takes one English word a day through the three steps our trainers use: word image, word sound, word meaning. This is the AFS-Method procedure called word formulation, and it belongs to the symptom part of the method, the part that trains reading, writing, and spelling directly. A word only stays in long-term memory when a child has seen its shape, heard it clearly, and understood what it means, which is why none of the three steps can be skipped. Read it together, say it, write it, and you have done ten minutes of word formulation without opening a workbook.
How the three steps work in detail, with all 1,612 free words, is explained in Dyslexia Spelling: How Word Formulation Teaches a Word Through Image, Sound, and Meaning.
Picture of the Day shows a new spot-the-differences picture every day. Your child solves it online, or you print it as a PDF with or without the solution. It looks like a game, and it is one, but it trains visual recognition: the child has to look closely, compare two pictures, and notice where they differ. In the AFS-Method that is the function part of the training, visual recognition, and it is the same skill a child needs to tell b from d or to see that a word on the page is not the one they just read. If you prefer paper, there is a printable set of 10-differences puzzles on this blog.
Ten math games in one free app, with no ads
Free apps for children usually pay for themselves with advertising. A University of Michigan study of 135 apps for young children found ads in 95 percent of them, and in every single free app (Meyer et al., Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 2019). AFS5 is the exception we built: ten math games in one app, from addition and subtraction to fractions, counting money, and telling time. Ten languages, no account, no ads, no subscription. It runs on iPhone, Mac, and Android.
A learning platform for families: parents.learnedy.com
parents.learnedy.com is our online learning platform for parents. The parents package is free: access for up to four children, quizzes without limits, and exercise books you put together for your own child. It has been free of charge and free of advertising since March 2020, and the site promises to ask its users before that ever changes. The platform is endorsed by the American Dyslexia Association and by the International Federation of Dyslexia and Dyscalculia Associations.
How much practice does a child with dyslexia need?
Ten to fifteen minutes a day at home, plus one session a week with a trained specialist. That is the pattern the AFS-Method has used since 1997, now in more than 60 countries, and it is the pattern behind the numbers: in a long-term study of children trained this way, 85 percent improved significantly (Kopp-Duller and Pailer-Duller, Dyslexia – Dyscalculia!?, 3rd edition, 2020). Every home session follows the same order: a minute or two of attention, a few minutes of perception exercises, then one reading, writing, or math task. Stop while the child is still willing. Praise every small step, because, in the words of the method’s author, praise is the daily bread of these children. If you want to see how trainers plan this, Lesson 9 of our free 48-part series turns a training plan into home practice.
Which of the three areas a child needs most is not something you have to guess. The AFS-Test is the educational test built for that question: it looks at the attention span, the sensory perceptions, and the errors the child actually makes, and it has been evaluated on more than 100,000 children between 6 and 14. Dyslexiatest.com explains what the test covers and lists the certified trainers who conduct it.
Questions parents ask us
How much should a child with dyslexia practice each day? Ten to fifteen minutes a day at home, every day, plus one session a week with a Certified Dyslexia Trainer. Short and daily works better than long and rare. This is the home-training pattern of the AFS-Method (Kopp-Duller 2021). In the long-term study of children trained this way, 85 percent improved significantly (Kopp-Duller and Pailer-Duller 2020).
Are free worksheets enough to help a child with dyslexia? No. Worksheets that only repeat the errors do not help a child with dyslexia and can make things worse. The AFS-Method trains three areas in every session: attention, sensory perception, and only then the symptom, meaning the actual reading, writing, or math task. Use worksheets as the last step of a short session, not as the whole session.
From what age can a child use these free dyslexia resources? The perception exercises, the picture puzzles, and the counting games work from preschool age. The AFS-Test, which tells you which areas to train, has been evaluated on more than 100,000 children aged 6 to 14. If you suspect a problem before school, start with perception games and have the child assessed once reading instruction begins.
What if the problem is math, not reading? The International Dyslexia Association describes dyscalculia as a mathematical disability in which a person has unusual difficulty solving arithmetic problems and grasping math concepts. An estimated 4 to 7 percent of students have it, one or two per classroom, and it often goes together with dyslexia. The same three-part training applies. For arithmetic, always pair the written number with a quantity the child can touch or count. Pictures on a page are not enough: use coins, blocks, or beans, because counting real things is the base of all arithmetic.
For teachers who want to go further
If you teach and want to work this way professionally, the Dyslexia Trainer Certification Program is accredited by the American Dyslexia Association. Lesson 1 is free. In September the program site marks International Literacy Month with half-price enrollment for the first 50 sign-ups, through September 30.
Read to them tonight
International Literacy Day is a good excuse for the simplest thing that works: read aloud to your child, even if the child can read alone, and especially if reading is hard. If you need a text to start with, bestselling author Don Bentley wrote a message to children with dyslexia for us last month. It is short, and it is worth reading out loud.
Sources: UNESCO, International Literacy Day. Astrid Kopp-Duller, Dyslexia – Training Using the AFS-Method, 3rd revised edition, 2021. Astrid Kopp-Duller and Livia R. Pailer-Duller, Dyslexia – Dyscalculia!? The importance of pedagogical-didactic assistance in cases of dyslexia, dyscalculia, and other problems in reading, writing, and doing arithmetic, 3rd edition, 2020. Meyer et al., “Advertising in Young Children’s Apps: A Content Analysis,” Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 2019, PMID 30371646. International Dyslexia Association, Frequently Asked Questions. Learning Disabilities Association of America, What is Dyscalculia?. Understood, What is dyscalculia?.
Photo: Shixart1985, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
More on this topic: put these free resources to work with our 31-day Dyslexia Awareness Month plan, one 10-minute activity for every day of October.
New for Halloween: 10 free Halloween worksheets for kids, one PDF with spot the differences, memory, patterns, counting, b or d, a word search, syllables, and a maze.
