Category: Freebies

Did you know that the American Dyslexia Association has been a non-profit organization since 2008 and is a 501(c)(3) public charity (EIN 26-3530084), dedicated to free help and quality services for people affected by dyslexia and their families? Your donations and membership fees are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. As a dyslexia charity, ADA uses every gift to keep worksheets, practice websites, and learning apps free for children, parents, and teachers.

The need is large. The International Dyslexia Association estimates that 15 to 20 percent of the population show some symptoms of dyslexia, such as slow reading, poor spelling, or mixing up similar words [Source: International Dyslexia Association, Dyslexia Basics, dyslexiaida.org]. Most families look for help at home first, long before they find a trained specialist. That is exactly where free, well-made material makes a difference.

What does 501(c)(3) public charity status mean for donors?

A 501(c)(3) public charity is an organization that the IRS recognizes as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and that receives broad support from the public. The IRS has confirmed this status for the American Dyslexia Association, Inc. in a determination letter, as a public charity under Section 509(a)(2). Gifts to public charities are deductible under the rules of Section 170 [Source: IRS, Public charities, irs.gov].

For you as a donor to a dyslexia charity, that means three things:

• Your gift goes to a charity, not a company. ADA has no shareholders; donations fund free help.
• You can name our EIN, 26-3530084, on your records and in your tax software.
• You receive a written acknowledgment for your gift, which the IRS asks donors to keep for any contribution of $250 or more [Source: IRS, Publication 526, irs.gov].

Can you deduct a donation if you take the standard deduction?

Yes, starting with tax year 2026 you can. The IRS states: “Beginning with tax year 2026, if you do not itemize, you may deduct up to $1,000 ($2,000 if filing jointly) of your cash contributions to certain qualified organizations” [Source: IRS, Topic no. 506, Charitable contributions, irs.gov].

This is new. For years, most households received no federal tax benefit for small cash gifts, because only people who itemized could deduct them. The new rule covers cash gifts, including card and PayPal payments; it does not cover gifts of clothing, stock, or other property, and it does not cover donor-advised funds. Keep a receipt or bank record for every gift. For your personal situation, please ask a tax professional; this article is general information, not tax advice.

How do you donate to the American Dyslexia Association?

You can donate online in under a minute through our secure PayPal donation page. Choose any amount, one time or as often as you like.

The donation button also sits at the top of every page of american-dyslexia-association.org. Questions about a gift, a matching gift from your employer, or a donation in memory of someone are welcome at [email protected].

Which ADA memberships are there, and is the fee deductible?

ADA offers three annual memberships, and each one supports the same mission. You can join on our Memberships page; the details of each level are listed under Membership Levels.

Membership fees are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. In practice, this means the part of your fee that is above the value of the member benefits you receive, such as badges, certificates, webinars, or a directory listing. The IRS rule is simple: “you can only deduct the amount that exceeds the fair market value of the benefit received” [Source: IRS, Topic no. 506, irs.gov]. Professionals who join for their practice may treat the fee as a business expense instead; your tax advisor can tell you which applies.

What does ADA offer for free?

ADA gives away 1,593 printable worksheets for training visual, auditory, and spatial skills, plus symptom training for dyslexia and dyscalculia. You find them on the FREE Worksheets page, sorted by area:

• Visual recognition (276 pages), visual memory (46), and visual sequencing (89)
• Auditory recognition (121), auditory memory (20), and auditory sequencing (20)
• Spatial orientation (12) and body perception (7)
• Symptom training dyslexia (467) and dyscalculia (14), attention (3)
• Create your own worksheet (51), word formulation (228), and a picture dictionary (239)

Next to the worksheets, Ears Open and Paying Attention! offers free audio clips for auditory perception training. On this blog, our Freebies page collects free downloads, and the article 1500 free worksheets explains how to start. If you want the full overview by age and topic, read Free Dyslexia Resources for Parents and Teachers.

All material follows the AFS-Method developed by dyslexia researcher Dr. Astrid Kopp-Duller. The method trains attention, sensory perceptions, and the symptoms in reading, spelling, writing, and/or calculating together, because a child needs all three to learn these skills without constant errors [Source: Astrid Kopp-Duller, Dyslexia – Training Using the AFS-Method, 3rd revised edition, 2021].

Which practice websites can families and trainers use?

Certified Dyslexia Trainers find the following websites in the resource library of the Dyslexia Trainer Certification Program, and families can open them directly. Most of them are free to use; a few belong to printed card games that you can order.

• easy-training-program.com: 31 free online games for visual memory, auditory skills, attention, and spatial orientation.
• spot-differences.com: a new Picture of the Day every day, online or as a PDF, for visual perception and attention to detail. Try the Spot the 10 Differences challenge here on the blog.
• wordformulation.com: a Word of the Day with exercises in AFS word formulation; read more in Mastering Word Formulation.
• cloze-test.com: gap-fill texts for reading comprehension, introduced in our post on 750 cloze tests.
• findthewordsabc.com: word search games with word lists for every letter of the alphabet.
• letters2words.com: a card game for word formation, with free game instructions as a PDF.
• mathe4matic.com: a card deck that makes math concepts visible in 3D.
• easy-reading-card.com: a reading card with a colored window that keeps the eye on the line and doubles as a bookmark.
• parents.learnedy.com: a free parents package for up to four children, without ads.

For background, the reference sites afs-method.com, dyslexiatest.com, and dyslexia-dyscalculia.com explain the method, the AFS-Test, and the books behind the training. Our article More Than 25 Years of the AFS-Test tells the story of the assessment.

Which free apps help children with dyslexia and dyscalculia practice?

Ten apps from our circle are free in the App Store, in English, with no ads, no in-app purchases, and no sign-up. Most of them also run as web apps, so a laptop or a school Chromebook is enough. All apps and browser versions are listed at appsthrum.com.

One detail matters to many parents: these apps collect no data about your child. They need no account, show no ads, and keep progress on the device. AFS5.com also avoids time pressure; after a mistake, the game shows the solution instead of a penalty.

What can free material do, and when does a child need a trainer?

Free worksheets and apps are excellent for daily practice, but they do not replace an individual training plan. A short daily session of 10 to 15 minutes at home, plus weekly work with a specialist, is the pattern the AFS-Method recommends [Source: Kopp-Duller, 2021]. A Certified Dyslexia Trainer first finds out, with an educational assessment, which sensory perceptions and which symptoms need training. Then the free material becomes targeted instead of random.

If you would like to become that specialist yourself, read Have You Heard of the ADA-Accredited Dyslexia Trainer Certification Program? and visit dyslexiacertificate.com.

Why supporting a dyslexia charity matters

Every free worksheet, website, and app costs money to write, host, test, and keep up to date. Dyslexia is a learning difference, not a lack of intelligence, and children who learn differently deserve material that respects that. Your donation or membership keeps this help free for the next family that searches for it at night after a hard homework session.

Donate now or become a member. Thank you for standing with people affected by dyslexia and their families.

More on this topic: see how families can use these free resources day by day in our 31-day Dyslexia Awareness Month plan.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Internal Revenue Service: Determination Letter 947 for American Dyslexia Association, Inc., EIN 26-3530084 (on file with ADA).
2. Internal Revenue Service: Topic no. 506, Charitable contributions. https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc506
3. Internal Revenue Service: Publication 526, Charitable Contributions. https://www.irs.gov/publications/p526
4. Internal Revenue Service: Public charities. https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/public-charities
5. International Dyslexia Association: Dyslexia Basics. https://dyslexiaida.org/dyslexia-basics/
6. Astrid Kopp-Duller: Dyslexia – Training Using the AFS-Method, 3rd revised edition, 2021. https://www.afs-method.com/
7. Apple App Store (US), app listings of AFS5.com, Math-Bingo, Wordthrum, Hivethrum, 3er, Tangramthrum, Linkthrum, Brickthrum, Heartthrum, and Spoon Hero (still listed in the App Store under its German name), checked October 3, 2026. https://appsthrum.com/en/

This article is general information and not tax or legal advice. Please ask a tax professional about your own situation.

Ross Linnett, Founder and CEO of Recite Me, can still remember his first day of school with surprising clarity.

He recalls, “I was way ahead of everyone else in regard to reading. I think I was reading from around the age of 2, but from age 4 and 5 I was in a special reading class. You had to be pretty bad at English to get into this class!”

At that point, growing up in the mid 80s in north east England, Ross and his parents had never heard of dyslexia. Perhaps his teachers didn’t either. Knowledge of dyslexia still had a long way to go, but it quickly became known that Ross needed extra help.

Ross explains, “It was a less pressured environment, so I didn’t feel like I was getting into trouble. If a teacher really took their time with me, I could excel. It was obvious then that I needed an adjustment.”

Despite the clear signs that Ross needed extra assistance in the classroom and even dyslexia testing, support from his school was minimal. Ross recalls, “One teacher even told me, ‘Don’t be stupid, you don’t have dyslexia,’ and a dyslexia specialist himself once looked at my school essay and told me I didn’t have dyslexia.”

During this disorienting time in school, Ross credits his talent in sports for building his confidence in school despite his struggles with reading and writing. “You never really get bullied at school if you’re good at sport, and it also gives you a lot of confidence,” Ross says, “But the thought of reading aloud used to send shivers down my spine. I’d be dreading it all day. It was the equivalent of jumping off a 100ft cliff.”

It wasn’t until Ross became President of the Students’ Union at Northumbria University that he forced himself to speak publicly and face his dyslexia head-on. As he explains, “I was presenting at the Students’ Union when somebody pointed out that their father specialized in dyslexia and suggested I get tested for it. I got myself tested at university, and they confirmed I had dyslexia.”

Ross soon learned that he wasn’t alone. As one of the most common learning disabilities in the world, common vision impairments and learning disabilities mean that millions of people around the world struggle with web accessibility, leading them to miss out on the valuable resources of the Internet, including career development, socialization, learning tools, and engaging with businesses.

The need for portable, cloud-based software that would make online content accessible to a variety of needs, including dyslexia and common vision impairments, became crucial. It was from this experience that Recite Me was born.

“We were involved with the Disability Discrimination Act as a Student Union at the time, but I was very aware that employers had to make the adjustments. It meant that every organization, under the Disability Discrimination Act in the United Kingdom, had the responsibility to cater to people with dyslexia or visual impairments, in the same way that buildings had to install ramps for people with physical disabilities. Everyone had to do it, but nobody was because the technology wasn’t there, so that’s when I came up with Recite Me.”

Since its early days, Recite Me’s software has been improving the web experience for millions of customers around the world who live with vision impairments, disabilities, or dyslexia. As businesses continue to move their operations online, and with an aging population, we expect our software to become even more vital in the future.

Ross adds, “When you get diagnosed later in life, you tend to question things more. It made me realize how negatively dyslexia had shaped my life up until that point.” Despite a difficult time at school, Ross has certainly not let dyslexia hold him back.

After much success in the UK, Recite Me is now expanding its operations to the US. Part of this expansion plan included opening a new office in nearby Naples, inside the Naples Accelerator. Despite our growth, our original mission remains at the forefront: to support and aid those with dyslexia or impairments around the world.

http://www.reciteme.com

Article written by Rachel Holbrook