American Dyslexia Association

Category: Dyslexia

Lesson 12 of 48: Training Tools and Resources: Trainer-Parent Toolkit
Every Tuesday, we open up one lesson of the Dyslexia Trainer Certification Program here on the blog, all 48 of them, one week at a time. Whether you are a teacher, a parent, or an education professional, this series shows you exactly what certified dyslexia trainers learn, and how the program works from the inside.

This week: Training Tools and Resources. Trainer-Parent Toolkit

Weekly sessions set direction and quality, but short, consistent home practice is what consolidates skills. This lesson curates trainer-vetted tools and resources, shows how to hand them to families in a simple, achievable routine of about 20 minutes a day, and explains how each tool maps to the AFS framework. Small daily wins, added up, become measurable progress.

What this lesson is about

Effective dyslexia/dyscalculia support is a team effort. Weekly sessions with a certified trainer set direction and quality; short, consistent home practice consolidates skills and accelerates growth. The trainer’s job is to make home practice simple, specific, and achievable, about 20 minutes daily (and even 5–10 minutes consistently is a solid start).

This lesson curates trainer-vetted tools and resources, shows how to deploy them with families, and explains how each maps to the AFS framework. With the right tools and a clear routine, families can turn small wins into steady, measurable progress.

Effective support is a team effort. Alongside the certified trainer’s weekly sessions (typically once or twice a week), progress accelerates when parents provide short, consistent home practice. The trainer equips parents with clear, parent-friendly instructions for daily practice, so the child reinforces exactly what was targeted in sessions. Parents should aim for about 20 minutes of daily home practice; even 5–10 minutes done consistently is a solid start.

What you will learn in Lesson 12
- Building a simple, achievable 20-minute home routine
- Trainer-vetted tools and resources for families
- How each tool maps to the AFS framework
- Turning small daily wins into measurable progress
About the Dyslexia Trainer Certification Program

Since 1997, more than 17,000 dyslexia trainers in 64 countries have been certified. The certification gives you more than knowledge: all the tools you need to actually work with dyslexic children are included as well. Worksheets, training programs, assessment materials, everything ready to use in your practice. You get the whole package.

The program is accredited by the American Dyslexia Association (ADA) and follows the training standards of the International Federation of Dyslexia and Dyscalculia Associations (IFDDA).

Catch up and start free

Lesson 1 is free for everyone. Register in a minute and see the program from the inside: dyslexiacertificate.com

You can find all published lessons of this series under the tag Lesson Series.
09/29/2026
Inside the AFS-Test, Week 8 of 25: Visual Memory

Every Wednesday, we take you inside the AFS-Test, the standardized assessment that allows Certified Dyslexia Trainers to definitively diagnose and categorize dyslexia and dyscalculia. This is week 8 of 25.

This week: Visual Memory

Visual memory stores what we have seen: the image of a word, the shape of a letter, the look of a number. Spelling depends on it heavily, because writers constantly compare what they write against the stored images of words. A child with underdeveloped visual memory can read a word ten times and still write it differently the eleventh time. The standardized AFS-Test measures visual memory with matching exercises, and the result shows exactly whether this storage system needs targeted training.

About the AFS-Test

The standardized Attention-Function-Symptom Test has been used worldwide for more than 25 years. It examines the attention span, the sensory perceptions, and the error symptoms of a child, and turns the results into an individualized training plan following the AFS-Method.

Find a Certified Trainer

Certified Dyslexia Trainers conduct the standardized AFS-Test in your area or remotely. Learn more and find a Certified Trainer near you: dyslexiatest.com

You can find all published articles of this series under the tag AFS-Test Series.

09/23/2026
Was Princess Diana Dyslexic? What the Record Actually Shows
No record shows that Princess Diana was ever assessed for dyslexia. What exists is one sentence her younger brother said out loud on September 21, 2026: “I think Diana suffered from dyslexia. She found spelling and word orders and letter orders quite tricky.”

He said it to PEOPLE, one day before his memoir went on sale, and within hours the Princess Diana dyslexia question was in newsrooms on four continents. At the American Dyslexia Association we hear the same two questions every time a famous name gets attached to dyslexia. Does the claim hold up? And what is a parent, or an adult who recognizes something of themselves in it, supposed to do with it? Here is the record, separated from the headline.

In short
- Princess Diana was never assessed for dyslexia, and nothing from her lifetime records a reading or spelling assessment.
- The claim comes from her brother Charles Spencer, made on September 21, 2026, one day before his memoir was published.
- No source published before 2026 calls Diana dyslexic, and none describes a reading or spelling problem.
- What has been documented since 1992: her family called her the thick one, and she failed every O-level examination twice.
- Against the claim: as a teenager she read romance novels heavily, and after her wedding she answered many of the 47,000 letters of congratulation by hand.
- Dyslexia can only be identified by testing a person’s reading and writing. A family account is testimony, and testimony is not an assessment.
What Charles Spencer actually said

Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer and Diana’s only brother, made the claim in an interview with Michelle Tauber for PEOPLE on September 21, 2026, the day before the publication of his memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister (Michael Joseph, September 22, 2026). His words on dyslexia were brief: “I think Diana suffered from dyslexia. She found spelling and word orders and letter orders quite tricky.”

The dyslexia remark sits inside a larger argument about attention. Spencer told PEOPLE: “I was only found out to have very severe ADHD late in life, and I know it’s exactly what Diana had. It’s so similar.” He added a piece of context that matters: “Diana was born in 1961, and certainly the private school system in England was not tuned into children’s needs as they are today.”

Spencer was careful about his own framing. “This isn’t a criticism,” he said. “It’s a recognition that she was struggling with a condition that was totally undiagnosed.” What he did not offer was a school report, a reading or spelling assessment, or a second family member who agrees. The claim rests on his memory and on his own experience late in life.

Had anyone suggested this before 2026?

No published source before September 2026 uses the word dyslexia about Princess Diana, but the pattern her brother describes has been on the record, in her own voice, for more than thirty years. The Princess Diana dyslexia claim is new. The evidence behind it is old.

Diana recorded a set of tapes with her voice coach Peter Settelen in 1992 and 1993, broadcast in the documentary Diana: In Her Own Words in 2017. On them she says: “I was always told by my family that I was the thick one. That I was stupid and my brother was the clever one.” She goes on: “I used to go to the headmistress crying saying I wish I wasn’t so stupid and thick, and wished my family felt a bit more of me. I remember doing that a lot.”

She returned to the subject in her BBC Panorama interview on November 20, 1995: “I was portrayed in the media at that time, if I remember rightly, as someone, because I hadn’t passed any O-levels and taken any A-levels, I was stupid. And I made the grave mistake once of saying to a child I was thick as a plank, in order to ease the child’s nervousness, which it did. But that headline went all round the world, and I rather regret saying it.”

What the earlier sources never describe is a reading or spelling problem. Her biographers and her schoolfellows call her a poor student, not academic, frustrated by lessons. The strongest concrete fact anyone recorded is that she attempted all of her O-level examinations twice and passed none of them, which is a written-examination failure across every subject rather than a difficulty anyone traced to literacy. Charles Spencer in 2026 is the first person on the public record to name spelling and letter order as the reason.

The school record backs the outline. Diana sat her O-level examinations twice at West Heath School in Kent and left at sixteen without passing them, in the same years that the school recognized her for helpfulness and she stood out in swimming, dance and domestic science. Strong in some areas, stuck in others, and written off as slow: that shape is familiar to every dyslexia trainer. Nobody in 1977 gave it a name.

Why “she found spelling tricky” is a clue, not an answer

Weak spelling is one of the most recognizable signs of dyslexia and one of the weakest pieces of evidence on its own. The International Dyslexia Association puts it plainly: as many as 15 to 20 percent of the population as a whole show some of the signs of dyslexia, including slow or inaccurate reading, poor spelling, poor writing, or mixing up similar words. Spencer’s description of his sister would fit a large share of the adult population.

A real dyslexia assessment is an educational one. It looks at how a person reads and writes: accuracy, decoding of unfamiliar words, reading fluency and spelling, the kinds of errors they make, and how their attention and sensory perceptions hold up during the task, all weighed against their age and schooling. This is also why a short screening is not enough to settle the question in a living child, let alone in a historical figure. None of that exists for Diana. Two details cut the other way and rarely make the coverage. The first is that she read for pleasure as a teenager, and heavily. Tina Brown records in The Diana Chronicles that Diana devoured Barbara Cartland’s romance novels, with an endless and steady supply, and Cartland herself said later that the only books Diana ever read were hers. The second is that she wrote constantly. After her 1981 wedding she chose to answer many of the 47,000 letters of congratulation herself, by hand, and her handwritten correspondence now fills auction catalogs. Those letters may offer a clue of their own. One of the wedding thank-you notes, sent in October 1981 to a couple who worked at Althorp and later sold by Julien’s Auctions, reads in the auction house’s transcription: “Enclosed is a small momento of our wedding day, which I do you’ll like.” That is a misspelled word and a missing word in one short sentence. A single note proves nothing, and “momento” is one of the most common misspellings in English, but a careful look at her letters as a whole would tell a dyslexia trainer more than any headline. Neither her reading nor her letter-writing rules dyslexia out. Cartland’s novels are short, formulaic and written at a reading level a weak decoder can manage, and plenty of dyslexic adults write for a living. But a real assessment weighs both, and a headline skips both.

Can dyslexia be identified after someone has died?

No. Dyslexia shows itself in how a person reads and writes, and the only way to see that is to sit down with them and watch them do it. Labels given to historical figures after the fact are guesses, and scholars who study them, among them Osamu Muramoto in a 2014 paper, warn that they should describe the pattern people observed rather than name a cause.

For Diana there is no school assessment on file, no reading or spelling sample, and no teacher’s report that names the problem. So the accurate sentence is the one Spencer nearly said: his sister showed a pattern consistent with dyslexia, as described by the person who grew up in the same house. That is family testimony, and it is worth something. It is not an assessment, and no amount of repetition in the press turns the Princess Diana dyslexia story into one.

What English schools knew about dyslexia when Diana was a pupil

Dyslexia entered British law for the first time nine years after Diana was born. Section 27 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 required local education authorities to arrange special educational treatment for children “suffering from acute dyslexia” within schools they maintained or assisted. It was the first statutory use of the word in the United Kingdom, and it framed dyslexia as a matter for schools and teaching.

Diana was born on July 1, 1961, went to boarding school at about nine, and left West Heath in 1977. The 1970 provision applied to the state sector, not to the independent schools she attended, and teachers were not trained to recognize the signs of dyslexia in either system. A girl who could not spell reliably in that era was described as lazy, dreamy, or not academic. Spencer’s framing of the period is fair, and it is the least contested part of his claim.

Why a family claim still matters, even without an assessment

Dyslexia has a genetic component and runs in families, which is why a sibling saying “this is what I have, and I think she had it too” is one of the most common ways a family discovers it at all. A child with a dyslexic parent has a 40 to 60 percent chance of being dyslexic, and roughly 40 percent of the siblings of a child with dyslexia have reading difficulties of their own.

The attention side of Spencer’s account fits as well. Attention problems and dyslexia turn up together far more often than chance would predict: Boada, Willcutt and Pennington found that 25 to 40 percent of children with one also show the other. This is why good dyslexia training starts with attention. A brother who struggled to focus and a sister who could not spell is not an odd pairing. Teachers see it every day.

The most useful fact in the whole story is the one about Charles Spencer himself. He reached his sixties before anyone gave his difficulties a name. That is not a royal anomaly. Adults recognize themselves late every week, usually when a child’s assessment report lands on the kitchen table and a parent reads their own childhood in it. Being underestimated at school is also a pattern with a long history: several American presidents struggled in the classroom before anyone had a word for why.

The royals who have spoken about their own dyslexia

Diana’s is a claim made after her death, while several living royals have spoken about their own dyslexia. Princess Beatrice of York was identified as dyslexic at the age of seven, spoke publicly about it from 2005, and has become one of Britain’s most visible advocates. Her husband is dyslexic as well. In Sweden, King Carl XVI Gustaf, Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Carl Philip have all spoken about dyslexia, and Prince Carl Philip has described what being asked to read aloud in class actually felt like.

One correction worth making while the story circulates: Diana was a patron of the British Deaf Association, which shares its initials with a dyslexia organization. She held no dyslexia patronage and, on the public record, never discussed reading or spelling difficulties as anything other than a source of embarrassment.

If this story sounds like your own

If a headline about Princess Diana dyslexia made you think about your own child, or about yourself at sixteen, the useful next step is a proper assessment and training rather than a label. In an older child or an adult the pattern usually looks like this: spelling that stays unreliable long after reading has improved, slow and effortful reading, a strong dislike of reading aloud, letters and word order slipping under time pressure, and effort that is wildly out of proportion to the result.

What changes that pattern is targeted training rather than more of the same schoolwork. The AFS Method works in a fixed order, attention first, then the sensory functions involved in reading and writing, then the symptom itself. It is set out in Dyslexia – Training Using the AFS-Method by Dr. Astrid Kopp-Duller, 3rd revised edition, 2021. The American Dyslexia Association publishes free worksheets for practice at home, an introduction to the AFS Method, and a certification program for teachers and parents who want to train others. If you want the myths cleared out first, start with Debunking the Myths about Dyslexia, and see everything we give away for free in one place. For what a full evaluation actually measures, read about more than 25 years of the AFS-Test.

Frequently asked questions

Was Princess Diana ever assessed for dyslexia?
No. There is no record of any dyslexia assessment during her lifetime. The claim was made by her brother Charles Spencer in September 2026, twenty-nine years after her death, and is his personal view rather than the result of an assessment.

Did Princess Diana have ADHD?
Charles Spencer believes she did, based on his own experience with ADHD late in life and on the similarities he sees in her. Diana was never assessed for it, so this too is a family view looking back, not a finding.

Does failing exams mean a child is dyslexic?
No. Exam results alone say nothing about the cause. Dyslexia is identified through an educational assessment of how a child reads and writes, measured against their age and schooling. Poor results in a bright, capable child are a reason to ask for that assessment, not an answer in themselves.

Sources
- Michelle Tauber, “Princess Diana’s Brother, Charles Spencer, Addresses Conspiracy Theories, Her Neurodivergence and More,” PEOPLE, September 21, 2026. Interview
- Charles Spencer, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Michael Joseph, September 22, 2026. Publisher page · Available on Amazon
- Diana, Princess of Wales, BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir, November 20, 1995. Full transcript, PBS Frontline
- Diana: In Her Own Words (2017), based on tapes recorded with Peter Settelen in 1992 and 1993. Documentary background
- International Dyslexia Association, Dyslexia Basics: as many as 15 to 20 percent of the population show some signs of dyslexia. Fact sheet
- Understood.org, “Is dyslexia genetic?”: 40 to 60 percent chance for a child with a dyslexic parent. Article
- R. Boada, E. G. Willcutt and B. F. Pennington, “Understanding the Comorbidity Between Dyslexia and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder,” Topics in Language Disorders, 2012: 25 to 40 percent of children with one also show the other. Full text, PDF
- Osamu Muramoto, “Retrospective diagnosis of a famous historical figure: ontological, epistemic, and ethical considerations,” Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, 2014. Paper
- Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, Section 27, “acute dyslexia.” Statute text
- Julien’s Auctions, handwritten letter from Diana to Mr. and Mrs. Pendrey, October 21, 1981. Lot description
- Tina Brown, The Diana Chronicles, 2007, on Diana’s reading as a teenager. Book excerpt, ABC News · Available on Amazon
- Prince Carl Philip of Sweden on growing up dyslexic. Interview
Photo: Diana, Princess of Wales, by John MacIntyre for Paisley Scotland, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 2.0. Card design by the American Dyslexia Association.
09/22/2026
Lesson 11 of 48: Sensory Perception Training: Visual, Auditory, and Spatial Foundations for Literacy and Numeracy
Every Tuesday, we open up one lesson of the Dyslexia Trainer Certification Program here on the blog, all 48 of them, one week at a time. Whether you are a teacher, a parent, or an education professional, this series shows you exactly what certified dyslexia trainers learn, and how the program works from the inside.

This week: Sensory Perception Training. Visual, Auditory, and Spatial Foundations for Literacy and Numeracy

Reading, writing, and arithmetic depend on a network of sensory processes working together. When one of them is underdeveloped, the brain compensates, and that shows up as slow processing, fatigue, and avoidable errors. Function training strengthens recognition, memory, and sequencing in the visual, auditory, and spatial domains, preparing the brain to handle academic tasks more efficiently. This lesson covers every function area with practical examples and selection guidance.

What this lesson is about

Function training does not replace instruction in reading, writing, spelling, or math; it prepares the brain to handle those tasks more efficiently. As functions improve, students more readily recognize symbols, maintain order in words and numbers, follow instructions, and integrate information across senses. This lesson outlines each function area, shows how to implement function training for school-age learners (and why we limit preschool to F only), and gives practical examples and selection guidance for trainers.

Key Takeaway: Function training prepares the brain to handle academic tasks more efficiently by strengthening the sensory foundations of learning.

What you will learn in Lesson 11
- The visual, auditory, and spatial function areas
- Strengthening recognition, memory, and sequencing
- Why preschoolers train functions only
- How to select the right exercises for each profile
About the Dyslexia Trainer Certification Program

Since 1997, more than 17,000 dyslexia trainers in 64 countries have been certified. The certification gives you more than knowledge: all the tools you need to actually work with dyslexic children are included as well. Worksheets, training programs, assessment materials, everything ready to use in your practice. You get the whole package.

The program is accredited by the American Dyslexia Association (ADA) and follows the training standards of the International Federation of Dyslexia and Dyscalculia Associations (IFDDA).

Catch up and start free

Lesson 1 is free for everyone. Register in a minute and see the program from the inside: dyslexiacertificate.com

You can find all published lessons of this series under the tag Lesson Series.
09/22/2026
Jamaica Dyslexia Association joins IFDDA
The International Federation of Dyslexia and Dyscalculia Associations welcomes a new member: the Jamaica Dyslexia Association (JDA), our first member in the Caribbean.

Jamaica has associations for many things, but until 2016 it had none for dyslexia. The JDA describes itself as the first and only charity in the country that focuses entirely on dyslexia, and it is a registered charity with the Companies Office of Jamaica. Its vision reaches beyond services: the association wants to influence public policy and laws by educating government officials, schools, employers, and the public about what people with dyslexia need.

Who they are

The association was founded by Heather Christian, a Jamaican-born Canadian who has dyslexia herself. She spent more than 25 years as an education administrator and community development project manager, served on boards in both Jamaica and Canada, and decided to make it her personal goal to bring dyslexia into the open in Jamaica. She is the JDA’s founder, chair, and chief executive.

In their own words, from their membership application:

The JDA provides helpful information and appropriate services that best meet the needs of those who have dyslexia without compromising quality and professionalism. The Association was developed through extensive consultation with key stakeholders that involved a range of organisations, individuals and families who have or have experienced dyslexia. The Jamaica Dyslexia Association (JDA), as a charitable organisation, is seeking to address the needs of children and adults with dyslexia and bring awareness, understanding, resources, and services to all people with dyslexia.

The association is run by a volunteer board and advised by an advisory board that brings together Jamaican and international expertise: Dr. Susan Anderson, an educational psychologist with more than 40 years in education, Dr. Barbara Matalon, consultant psychologist and retired professor at the University of the West Indies, Allan Caseman, a certified dyslexia assessor with experience in the United Kingdom and Jamaica, and Jannett Morgan, neurodiversity specialist and author of “Young, Gifted, Dyslexic and Black.” In practice, the JDA:
- offers a free half-hour phone consultation with an intake coordinator who has dyslexia, for individuals, families, schools, employers, and government agencies,
- provides formal dyslexia assessments and tutoring for children, teenagers, and adults at flat fees,
- trains educators and supports parents who home-school,
- advises government agencies on policies and employers on workplace adjustments,
- and publishes dyslexia checklists for preschoolers, school-age children, and adults.
The association also appoints Goodwill Ambassadors, Jamaicans and people of Jamaican descent from every continent, to raise awareness of dyslexia at home and in the diaspora. Its homepage quotes Harry Belafonte, the Jamaican-American singer and activist, on growing up in a school system where nobody understood learning differences.

Why it matters for IFDDA

Our members exchange knowledge, methods, and experience across borders. With the Jamaica Dyslexia Association, the federation gains its first member in the Caribbean and a partner that is building dyslexia support from the ground up in a country where it did not exist before. That is pioneering work, and pioneers benefit most from a network. We look forward to giving the JDA a larger stage and to learning how dyslexia is identified and supported in Jamaica.

You can find the Jamaica Dyslexia Association at jamaicadyslexiaassociation.com, and all IFDDA members at ifdda.org.

If you run a non-profit dyslexia or dyscalculia organization and would like to join the federation, membership is free. Apply at ifdda.org.
09/18/2026
Inside the AFS-Test, Week 7 of 25: Visual Recognition

Every Wednesday, we take you inside the AFS-Test, the standardized assessment that allows Certified Dyslexia Trainers to definitively diagnose and categorize dyslexia and dyscalculia. This is week 7 of 25.

This week: Visual Recognition

Visual recognition is the ability to spot the essential detail and tell similar shapes apart: b and d, ie and ei, 6 and 9. A child with underdeveloped visual recognition sees perfectly well, but sorting what they see takes longer and costs more effort. In the standardized AFS-Test, the child works through playful exercises that show precisely how reliably they differentiate optical patterns. If this area needs support, targeted training strengthens it step by step, before letters are even involved.

About the AFS-Test

The standardized Attention-Function-Symptom Test has been used worldwide for more than 25 years. It examines the attention span, the sensory perceptions, and the error symptoms of a child, and turns the results into an individualized training plan following the AFS-Method.

Find a Certified Trainer

Certified Dyslexia Trainers conduct the standardized AFS-Test in your area or remotely. Learn more and find a Certified Trainer near you: dyslexiatest.com

You can find all published articles of this series under the tag AFS-Test Series.

09/16/2026
Lesson 10 of 48: Attention Training: Building Focus for Learning Success
Every Tuesday, we open up one lesson of the Dyslexia Trainer Certification Program here on the blog, all 48 of them, one week at a time. Whether you are a teacher, a parent, or an education professional, this series shows you exactly what certified dyslexia trainers learn, and how the program works from the inside.

This week: Attention Training. Building Focus for Learning Success

Attention is the foundation of all learning, and for dyslexic and dyscalculic learners, staying focused on letters and numbers is especially hard. This lesson explains what attention training is, how attention differs from concentration, and why situational inattentiveness around symbols is not the same as ADHD. It closes with a practical toolkit, including kinesiology-based exercises, to help learners reach and hold optimal focus.

What this lesson is about

Attention is a vital foundation for all learning. Without it, even the most carefully designed training cannot be fully effective. For learners with dyslexia or dyscalculia, maintaining attention on symbol-based tasks, such as reading, spelling, writing, or math, can be especially challenging. Attention training in the AFS Method addresses this challenge directly, using structured exercises to prepare the brain for focused work.

Attention training refers to structured, targeted exercises designed to help learners focus their thoughts and sustain concentration on a specific task over a period of time. In the AFS Method, attention training is one of the three core pillars, alongside function training and symptom training, because it addresses a key barrier to learning for many individuals with dyslexia and dyscalculia: the difficulty of maintaining mental focus on written symbols and numbers.

What you will learn in Lesson 10
- What attention training is, and how attention differs from concentration
- Why dyslexic learners lose focus around letters and numbers
- Situational inattentiveness vs. ADHD
- A practical toolkit, including kinesiology-based exercises
About the Dyslexia Trainer Certification Program

Since 1997, more than 17,000 dyslexia trainers in 64 countries have been certified. The certification gives you more than knowledge: all the tools you need to actually work with dyslexic children are included as well. Worksheets, training programs, assessment materials, everything ready to use in your practice. You get the whole package.

The program is accredited by the American Dyslexia Association (ADA) and follows the training standards of the International Federation of Dyslexia and Dyscalculia Associations (IFDDA).

Catch up and start free

Lesson 1 is free for everyone. Register in a minute and see the program from the inside: dyslexiacertificate.com

You can find all published lessons of this series under the tag Lesson Series.
09/15/2026
Inside the AFS-Test, Week 6 of 25: The Sensory Foundations

Every Wednesday, we take you inside the AFS-Test, the standardized assessment that allows Certified Dyslexia Trainers to definitively diagnose and categorize dyslexia and dyscalculia. This is week 6 of 25.

This week: The Sensory Foundations

Reading, writing, and arithmetic rest on a network of sensory perceptions working together: seeing precisely, hearing precisely, and knowing where you are in space. When one of these functions is differently developed, the brain compensates, and that costs energy, speed, and accuracy. The standardized AFS-Test checks eight function areas, from visual recognition to body perception, to definitively diagnose and categorize where support is needed. Over the next eight weeks, we will look at each one of them: what it does, how the test checks it, and what training looks like when it needs strengthening.

About the AFS-Test

The standardized Attention-Function-Symptom Test has been used worldwide for more than 25 years. It examines the attention span, the sensory perceptions, and the error symptoms of a child, and turns the results into an individualized training plan following the AFS-Method.

Find a Certified Trainer

Certified Dyslexia Trainers conduct the standardized AFS-Test in your area or remotely. Learn more and find a Certified Trainer near you: dyslexiatest.com

You can find all published articles of this series under the tag AFS-Test Series.

09/09/2026
Free Dyslexia Resources for Parents and Teachers: What We Give Away on International Literacy Day

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.

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.

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 differentiation, 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 trained 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.

09/08/2026