American Dyslexia Association

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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
The Book Lady: What Dolly Parton Gave to Children Who Find Reading Hard

Dolly Parton died on Tuesday, August 25, in Nashville. She was 80. Her publicist said she faced a brief battle with cancer and died peacefully, and her family will hold a small private service. In place of flowers, they asked people to give to her Imagination Library.

That request tells you what she wanted remembered. Not the 3,000 songs, the eleven Grammys, “Jolene” or “9 to 5.” The books.

Since 1995, her Imagination Library has mailed a free book every month to each enrolled child, from birth until the child turns five. There is no income test. A parent registers a name and an address, and the book arrives addressed to the child. By the week of her death the program had given away more than 332 million books, and it sends about three million more every month across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. Roughly one American child in seven under the age of five gets a book from Dolly in the mail.

Dolly reads to children at the Library of Congress in February 2018, the day the Imagination Library gave away its 100 millionth book. Photo: Shawn Miller, Library of Congress.

The father who could not read

She built all of it for one man.

Robert Lee Parton farmed tobacco in the mountains of East Tennessee. He came from a large family, was needed at home, and never went to school. He never learned to read or write. Dolly, the fourth of his twelve children, was born in a one-room cabin on the Little Pigeon River, and she said for the rest of her life that her father was one of the smartest people she ever knew. She credited him for her business sense.

“My Daddy couldn’t read and write, and we were just mountain people,” she said. “Daddy was always kind of embarrassed.” He had decided the door was closed: “Daddy thought it was just something he couldn’t learn after he was grown, so he never tried to learn to read and write.”

When she started mailing books to children in her home county in 1995, she told him: “There are millions of people around this world that can’t read and write. You’re not the only one. You don’t need to feel embarrassed about that.” She asked him to help her with the program. The children of Sevier County started calling her the Book Lady, and she said her father thought that was the grandest thing. Before he died in 2000, the year the program went national, he told her the Imagination Library was probably the most important thing she had ever done.

Why this belongs on a dyslexia website

Lee Parton was not dyslexic, as far as anyone knows. He never had the chance to find out. But if you are raising a dyslexic child, you recognize the two things he carried: the embarrassment, and the conviction that reading belongs to other people.

A dyslexic child tends to reach that same conviction by second grade. She watches the class take off while she is still sounding out the same word, and she draws a conclusion about herself. Undoing that conclusion takes more work than teaching the letters ever did.

The numbers make this urgent. In the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, 40 percent of American fourth graders scored below the basic level in reading, the highest share since 2002. More fourth graders now read below basic than read at a proficient level.

Dolly’s answer was to get books into homes before any of that could start, and researchers have measured what that does. Children enrolled in the Imagination Library for three years or more arrive at kindergarten ahead of their peers in letter naming, print concepts and phonemic awareness. In one state study, enrolled children were nine times more likely to be read to four or more days a week. Those are the exact skills a dyslexic child finds hardest.

A book in the mail does not prevent dyslexia and does not cure it. What it does is give the child a running start on the skills that matter most, and it makes reading together an ordinary part of the household. The child meets school having been read to a thousand times.

That second part matters more than most parents realize. A dyslexic child who is read to takes in the vocabulary, the sentence patterns and the shape of a story without decoding a single word. Her listening keeps pace with her intelligence while her decoding catches up. A child who has never been read to arrives at the reading struggle with nothing to fight for, because she does not yet know what a book holds.

The message in the mailbox

One detail of the program is worth pausing on. The book comes addressed to the child. A two-year-old cannot read the label, but a four-year-old can find her own name on it. Month after month, the mail carrier delivers something that says: this is yours, and you belong with books.

For a child who will later be told she is “behind,” that history is an asset. She owns sixty books before she has read one. She has a favorite. She knows how the story ends before she can decode the first page. The dyslexia is still there, and it will still need proper training. But she walks into that work as a reader with a problem to solve rather than as a non-reader.

Dolly said it herself: “If you can read, even if you can’t afford education, you can go on and learn about anything you want to know.”

Two books

The first book every enrolled child receives is The Little Engine That Could. It was the one book Dolly remembered having in the house as a girl.

The 100 millionth book, presented at the Library of Congress in February 2018, was her own picture book, Coat of Many Colors, drawn from the song about a coat her mother stitched from rags and the classmates who laughed at it. The girl in the story is poor and mocked and knows she is loved anyway. That is a story a lot of our children need.

What you can do this week

Sign up. If you have a child under five, go to imaginationlibrary.com and check whether a local partner covers your area. Most of the United States is covered. It costs you nothing.

Keep reading aloud. If your child is older and finds reading hard, do not stop at the age when children are “supposed” to read on their own. Audiobooks count. What matters is that the stories keep coming while the decoding catches up.

Have it looked at early. If you suspect dyslexia, get an assessment. Every year you wait adds to the “reading is for other people” belief you will later have to undo. Our free worksheets are a place to start, and you can read about the American Dyslexia Association here.

Give, if you can. Her family asked that gifts in her memory go to the Imagination Library, and September is Imagination Library Month. The Dollywood Foundation said after her death: “The work ahead has never felt more meaningful, and we will carry it forward.”

She had one more line that we will keep on the wall: “You can never get enough books into the hands of young children.”

Thank you, Dolly.

The American Dyslexia Association is a nonprofit organization in Osprey, Florida, supporting children, families, educators, and adults affected by dyslexia and other reading and writing differences.

08/28/2026
Bestselling Author Don Bentley: The World Needs What’s Waiting Inside of You

Don Bentley

Some writers spend a career imagining danger. Don Bentley spent a decade flying into it.

Before he became a New York Times bestselling novelist, Bentley flew Apache helicopters for the U.S. Army and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and the Air Medal with “V” device for valor in Afghanistan. He went on to serve as an FBI special agent working foreign intelligence and counterintelligence, and as a member of a SWAT team. Today he writes the Matt Drake thrillers and four Tom Clancy Jack Ryan, Jr. novels, and he now writes in the Mitch Rapp universe created by the late Vince Flynn.

We wrote to him with a small request. We asked whether he would say a few words to children who find reading hard, and to the families sitting at the kitchen table with them. He answered within the week.

Dyslexia is an obstacle, but it doesn’t have to be a limitation. My favorite author, Vince Flynn, was dyslexic and his thirteen novels reflect the creative, out of the box thinking common among dyslexics. Writing was a struggle for Vince, but his perseverance birthed one of commercial fiction’s most iconic protagonists, Mitch Rapp, and delighted millions of readers. Don’t give up—the world needs what’s waiting inside of you too!
Don Bentley

Why Vince Flynn

There is a reason Flynn came to mind. He was open about his dyslexia, and the start of his career was anything but a straight line. He collected rejection letter after rejection letter and finally published his first novel himself, in 1997. Readers found it anyway. The character he created went on to fill shelves in airports and libraries all over the world, and the series is still running today, written by the author who sent us these words.

That is the part we want children to hear. Not that dyslexia is easy, and not that it goes away. It is that the way a dyslexic mind works, arriving sideways at an answer other people walk straight past, is the same quality that made those books worth reading in the first place.

If your child has decided that books are for other people, this is worth reading out loud to them.

Double Tap, out September 22

Bentley’s next novel, Double Tap, arrives on September 22, 2026 from Atria/Emily Bestler Books. It continues Vince Flynn’s American Assassin storyline and sends a young Mitch Rapp on his first deep cover mission. A Pakistani chemical weapons scientist has been snatched off the streets of Verona, and Rapp has to get inside the cell that took him before anyone can put that expertise to use.

It is his third novel in the Mitch Rapp series, after Capture or Kill and Denied Access.

Buy the book: Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Books-A-Million and Audible. All retailer links are on his website: donbentleybooks.com/books/double-tap

More from Don Bentley: the Mitch Rapp novels Capture or Kill and Denied Access, and the Matt Drake thrillers Without Sanction and Forgotten War.

Our thanks to Don Bentley for taking the time. You can find all of his books at donbentleybooks.com.

The American Dyslexia Association is a nonprofit organization in Osprey, Florida, supporting children, families, educators, and adults affected by dyslexia and other reading and writing differences.

08/25/2026
Turning the Page: How Adults Can Help Teens Rediscover the Joy of Reading

By Dr. Lisa R. Hassler

Parents hope to instill a love of reading that lasts a lifetime with their children. Reading is an essential skill that promotes cognitive, social, and emotional development, and is a crucial tool for academic and professional success. As parents, we understand this, so we stock our shelves with beautifully illustrated picture books and read to our little ones, snuggled on our laps or tucked in their beds. However, somewhere along the way, they stop consuming books as they did when they were younger, and they lose the love. As a parent and teacher, I often wonder: does the love of reading ever return?

It made me curious, so I delved a little deeper into the relationship between teens and books. In this article, you’ll learn about teenage reading habits, banned books, the impact of COVID, the rise of BookTok, as well as fun tips. Consider this information to help regain your teenager’s love of reading.

What does the Research Say?

The number of adolescents who read every day significantly decreases as they transition from childhood to adolescence. Studies show a consistent decline in daily reading as children grow older, with a sharp drop by age nine that does not typically recover throughout adolescence (Scholastic, 2019). The Scholastic 2013 report indicated a decline in daily reading from 48% of 6- to 8-year-olds to 24% of 15- to 17-year-olds, while the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) revealed a decrease from 53% of 9-year-olds to 19% of 17-year-olds (2013). Additionally, NCES indicated a decrease in the proportion of tweens and teens who read for pleasure at least once a week since 1984, from 81% to 76% among 9-year-olds, 70% to 53% among 13-year-olds, and 64% to 40% among 17-year-olds (2013). Furthermore, the percentage of teenagers who say they never or hardly ever read has increased from 8% of 13-year-olds and 9% of 17-year-olds in 1984 to 22% and 27%, respectively, at present (NCES, 2013).

Parent involvement matters. Half of parents with children under 12 read with their children every day, and 60% of children aged 8 and under read every day (Common Sense Media, 2013). Additionally, Scholastic estimates that 34% of 6- to 17-year-olds read every day, and there is a strong correlation between parents who set aside daily reading time and children who frequently read (2013). Specifically, 57% of parents of frequent readers establish daily reading time, while only 16% of parents of infrequent readers do the same.

Continue reading here:

https://www.drlisarhassler.com/post/turning-the-page-how-adults-can-help-teens-rediscover-the-joy-of-reading

Available on Amazon: America's Embarrassing Reading Crisis: What We Learned from Covid

05/24/2023
How to Inspire Students to Write By Linda Davis-Kyle

HOW TO INSPIRE STUDENTS TO WRITE
By Linda Davis-Kyle

As a youth, Lisa Shontea Nichols (b.d. May 18, 1966) endured from her speech teacher the words, “Miss Nichols, you should never speak in public,” and from her composition teacher, “Miss Nichols, you’re the weakest writer I ever met in my entire life.” 1

Rising above Denigrating Criticism

Yet, about three decades later, Lisa is a world-renowned transformational speaker who addresses audiences of 10,000 plus, and she is a bestselling author of six books with a seventh—Abundance Now: Amplify Your Life & Achieve Prosperity Today—ready for release at the time of this writing. As Lisa puts it, she “writes bestsellers, not books.” She is a co-author of Living Proof: Celebrating the Gifts That Came Wrapped in Sandpaper and the author of No Matter What! 9 Steps to Living the Life You Love and Unbreakable Spirit: Rise Above the Impossible. Not only is she a world-renowned speaker and bestselling author, but Lisa is also the founder and CEO of the multi-million dollar company Motivating the Masses, Inc.

Hearing Discouraging Comments May Be Quite Common

While aspiring writers can find a multitude of teachers and established writers making discouraging comments about and to youthful writers, I, as a contrarian on the matter, feel that it is important to encourage young learners to write as soon as they show any interest in writing. Some parents may see their very young children—who have enjoyed hearing stories read to them—sit with a notepad and draw wavy lines before the youngsters can read for themselves or even know the alphabet. When asked, “What are you doing?” they very well may say proudly, “I’m writing a story.” When such an action happens, parents I have known capitalize on that moment and encourage those efforts.

Appreciating Astute Parents, Grandparents, and Teachers

From the tiny bit I know from Richard Bandler, the great and wonderful co-creator of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, I suspect he would praise the parent or teacher who fosters the growth of thought in youngsters and their keen desire to put pencil to paper to write. Bandler likely would say that the words spoken are of supreme importance to young and mature alike who are inspired to write. To make it clear, neither Bandler nor I are talking about false praise. I’m referring to looking for and finding something good in the young writers’ compositions, theme papers, articles, stories, poems, songs, and books. Some careless comments can, in a sense, “hypnotize” and devalue the efforts of youthful writers.

Acknowledging the Impact of Positive Effort and Encouragement

Some who seem to tell youngsters they are not experienced enough to write, they have not seen enough of the world to write, they have no voice or style to write, may be wholly and completely correct in their assumption. I believe, though, that offering constructive criticism with thoughtful suggestions is totally welcome. Young writers learn to write by writing and being nurtured in their efforts. Giving harsh criticism can crush the spirit of some young writers. It is akin to pulling on a sprouting plant, uprooting it, and killing it before it has a chance to develop strong roots and flourish. Thoughtful communication and correction are to the students as water and sunlight are to the emerging sprouts. Why destroy enthusiasm in any eager writers—young or mature—who choose to share their talent with the world? Why try to stymy the love of a budding talent that needs only attention, direction, and their own devotion to their worthy goal?

Encouraging and Fostering the Love of Writing

One learns by taking lessons, by observing others doing their chosen activity, and by diving into the activity with passion. I prefer to encourage young writers. I say to young and mature writers alike that “no matter what anyone says to try to dissuade you or what anyone does to put obstacles in your path, keep studying and reading and working to improve your craft.”

Motivating with Encouraging Words from the Heart

Not all teachers are like Lisa’s. Encouragement can come from the hearts of caring teachers, parents, grandparents, and mentors. Reading and writing daily can keep would-be writers energized. Practicing step by step can help eager writers-in-the-making conquer obstacles that arise not only in writing but also in life. Adults who choose to be their mentors can guide and support teens to improve their writing through serious application of some fun ways of looking at writing. If your teens choose to continue to use some of the modest approaches to writing, such as warm-ups (which seasoned writers may or may not use) while exploring and learning more complicated techniques to polish their talents, all the while, who knows where their writing will lead them as they go forth into the world?

Looking Inside the Writing World of Some Teens

Had Jake Marcionette’s mother not encouraged Jake, he would not be a triumphant author with his published books, such as Just Jake #1 and Just Jake: Dog Eat Dog #2.
His mother “encouraged” him. Actually, he explains that she “forced” him to write an hour and a half each day. As a successfully published author, though, force is no longer part of the equation. Marcionette says he “loves writing” now.
Rachel Parent’s family encouraged Rachel with her passion to help bring the important anti-GMO message to her peers, her country, and the world. Had her parents not supported her efforts, Rachel would not have had the opportunity to meet with Canada’s Health Minister Rona Ambrose to speak her mind.

Books are one of our greatest treasures. Photo by Linda Davis-Kyle, Copyright © 2014.

Putting Writing Rules to Good Use

Sure. It’s good to have a handle on grammar and the parts of speech before one dives right in to write. The late Gary Provost says, “…you cannot write well without [the rules of grammar].”
And, as I say in The Busy English Teacher… “recognizing parts of speech and how writers put the words to work can contribute to great fun and relevant learning for eager scholars. An abundance of practice researching, reading, and noting spelling awaits them around every corner. When given a little nudge in the right direction to motivate them, teens may be amazed at their own power. Young learners can experience the joy of learning. They can stretch their thinking when given fun challenges and exciting opportunities to explore. They can accept challenges they have not even thought of accepting before if presented in a non-threatening and fun way.” by

Writing Even before Becoming Supersaturated in Rules

Making a bold effort to keep the joy of writing alive, some educators do not intrude on the creative process for quite some time. Montessori schools, with which I am familiar, maintain an initial hands-off policy and just let budding writers write. After the young learners are comfortable with their masterpieces, their teachers, known as guides, gently introduce patterns and rules of spelling and grammar while still managing not to stifle the creativity of the young writers. Some students may excel in spite of harsh criticism, or even because of it, as Lisa has. Nevertheless, some teachers may choose to nurture rather than negate the writing of young students to help them achieve their dreams. If they wish, teachers can leave a legacy of kindness. Their kindness can live to connect with the hearts of their students to help sustain their inner power long after the teachers have gone.

Sources

1 Nichols, Lisa. “Questions That Will Stir Your Soul,” YouTube ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuKCwS8wmls 24:32.
2 ldk, The Writer’s Friend, p. 14.
3 Marcionette, Jake. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/thirteen-year-old-author-writes-own-success-story/
4 Provost, Gary. 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing. New York: Mentor, 1985, p. 107.
5 ldk, The Busy English Teacher’s Fun Activities & Exercises for Pre-Teens: Grammar Mind Maps, Fitness Games & More. Amazon Kindle Book.

About the Author

Linda Davis-Kyle, MA, has been published in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia in professional journals such as Modern Drama in Canada, Chem Matters in the USA, Jewish Affairs in the Republic of South Africa, and Studies in English Literature in Japan, and in magazines such as Common Ground in Canada and Green Farm Natural Health in the United Kingdom. She is also the author of “Exploring ‘Treasure Storehouses’ of the World,” found on the American Dyslexia Association website. Davis-Kyle’s Amazon Kindle book, The Busy English Teacher’s Fun Activities & Exercises for Pre-Teens, is the perfect time-saving gift for overworked educators. It is overflowing with fun learning exercises that nurture the minds, bodies, and spirits of young learners.

Find it on Amazon: Books by Linda Davis-Kyle

07/02/2015
TextProject – Free reading texts for teachers, students, tutors, and parents

TextProject is a website offering high-quality student texts and teacher guides, all of which are available for free download. Text for students, vocabulary lessons and lists, professional development modules and videos – TextProject provides a world of open-access resources for teachers, teacher educators, parents, tutors, and students.

Some examples of the resources you’ll find:

BeginningReads™

TextProject’s BeginningReads program supports teachers, parents, and tutors in helping children develop their reading skills. The goal of BeginningReads is to connect students’ oral language knowledge with written language. Ten levels (of 12 books each) are available. More information: click here.

FYI for kids

A collection of engaging and high-quality magazine articles designed to enhance the Common Core classroom’s reading repertoire. More information: click here.

SummerReads™

Students who don’t read much over the summer show a decline in reading performance from the end of one grade to the start of the next. Research shows that even reading 4 or 5 books over the summer helps to prevent the summer slump. SummerReads are accessible, engaging texts for at-risk readers… for FREE! And there are enough texts for an entire summer of reading. More information: click here.

But there is even more! Check it out here: Textproject.org

05/18/2015
Dinosaur perception training

Kids + dinosaurs = fun! Enjoy our new free no-prep printables with dinosaurs. Kids will have fun and train their visual and spatial perception, patterning, and counting up to 5.

Visual and spatial perception:

Patterning:

Counting till 5:

Download: Dinosaur perception training

You want even more dinosaurs? Check out this free online game: Dinosaur – Find the pairs! You can choose different levels. The game can be played in any browser on any computer, smartphone or tablet.

05/11/2015
Overcoming the Shame of My Learning Disability

By Leana Greene
CEO of KidsInTheHouse.com

I think I was 6 years old when I realized I was different. I tried harder than anyone else to please, but I could not spell words or learn how to put letters together to read.

Leana Greene

How do you not feel stupid when everyone else is learning something that you can’t grasp at the same pace? The shame of not being able to read out loud without stuttering or misspelling something on the blackboard in front of the class was almost unbearable. The fear of being called on by the teacher was paralyzing and made me act out and have panic attacks. My math teacher berated me because she thought I was being careless when I accidentally reversed numbers. I spent countless hours with frustrated but well-meaning adults who wanted to help me but just thought I wasn’t trying hard enough. All of these experiences sent me the message that I was not good enough.

Being different as a child is not an easy thing, and it can scar your self-esteem for a lifetime. I think that the compounding effect is that you feel ashamed about it, and so your anxiety about trying to do something makes having the disability even harder. While many people struggle with the diagnosis of a learning disability, I think parents of children with learning disabilities might have an even bigger challenge addressing the psychological effects of it.

As a parent, it is important to really talk to your child and address what is happening. According to pediatric neuropsychologist at UCLA, Sandra Loo, PhD, the first step for any parent who has a child with learning difficulties is to get the right diagnosis. Getting an early diagnosis will help your child get the proper interventions and accommodations, like extra time in school. It’s a good idea to get a complete evaluation because many children have more than one learning disability — around 25 percent of children with Dyslexia also have ADHD. Another way of addressing what is happening is by discussing your own areas where you feel inadequate in order to make it easier for your child to share his or her problems. Sharing my struggles about my disability with my kids has encouraged them to share not only a good grade but also the inevitable challenges of trying to perform in school.

Most people with learning disabilities, like dyslexia, have a hard time doing well in school, but they often are successful post-education. Dyslexia/ADD specialist and leader of Renaissance Mind learning facility, Angela Gonzales, MD, explains that often the traditional academic environment does not suit a non-traditional learner, but children with learning disabilities have a style of thinking that is a gift later in life. She says, “These are highly visual, spatial, and conceptual learners that have the ability to distort perception and perceive it as reality. That’s a problem in school, but in the real world, this style of thinking allows you to be a Lego builder extraordinaire. It allows you to be an artist. As you get older, it allows you to be the best architect, movie producer, musician, or actor you can be.” While parents need to have realistic expectations about what their child can accomplish in school, they also need to make an effort to understand the different ways their child processes information and appreciate that their child, who is struggling with academics, is actually a gifted and capable individual with an incredible imagination. As Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Communicating this way of thinking with your child may take some of the pressure off and make school bearable.

Finding people who have faced the same struggles as your child may also be helpful in working through a disability. For me, it has been helpful recognizing that there are other Dyslexic entrepreneurs like Ingvar Kamprad, founder of Ikea, Paul Orfala, founder of Kinko’s, David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue, Charles Schwab, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ben Foss of Intel. Having a role model is important, and if your child has the opportunity to know that there are other people out there facing the same challenges, he or she will feel less alone and know they can succeed.

For years, I tried to hide my learning disability because I didn’t want it to define me, and maybe I was still ashamed. Many parents have to deal with this seesaw. On the one hand, you want to help your child create a positive label for being different, but on the other hand, you do not want that label to solely define your child. Once you begin being labeled as just “John with ADD” or “Jane with Dyslexia,” it increases the shame and fear of being different. Even for those who have learned to embrace their learning disability, it is always difficult and hurtful to be labeled by others.

How a child sees his or her disability is dependent on how that disability is explained and communicated by family members. Harvard-trained child and adult psychiatrist and ADHD Specialist, Edward Hallowell, explains the importance of framing learning disabilities in a positive way and communicating with your child that he or she is not so much “disabled” as “different”. Parents need to be sensitive to the fact that kids may not want to be defined as different all of the time, and give their kids an opportunity to be defined by other achievements. A way of doing this is to help your child find at least one other activity in which he or she can excel. That activity may be drawing, music, or sports. Whatever it is, helping your child recognize that he or she has both strengths and weaknesses makes life easier. It also gives children the opportunity to see themselves as more than their disability and more than a label.

I think it is important for parents to understand that it is not only the learning disability that causes problems, but also the anxiety and paralysis that compound the learning disability. Acting defiantly may be a way of protecting oneself from the fear of failure, and it is good if parents can recognize those signs in their children. Even today, as I go into the doctor’s office and have to fill out a form with no spellcheck or person there to correct my spelling, I can feel that same childhood panic attack and sweat coming down my back, and this is after years of openly talking about my dyslexia.

Ultimately, I have found ways to work through my disability, and parents should know that, with the proper help, their kids will as well. In the words of clinical neuropsychologist and faculty of Harvard Medical School, Jerome Schultz, PhD, “If we’re starting with a base of failure and fear and frustration, it’s hard to build anything on that foundation. So we really have to turn this cycle around, and it’s quite possible to do.” Many studies are proving that children with learning disabilities can overcome adversity, and this could be the reason why so many dyslexic people and others with learning disabilities end up excelling and becoming entrepreneurs.

Resources:

Leana.com – Leana Greene’s Website
KidsintheHouse.com – World’s Largest Parenting Video Library

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03/07/2015
ReadWorks: Free resources for reading comprehension

Can children learn reading comprehension? Of course, they can. Thanks to ReadWorks, this is not even expensive. In fact, it is completely free. This non-profit site offers research-proven tools so that students can improve their academic achievement.

ReadWorks provides research-based units, lessons, and authentic, leveled non-fiction and literary passages online, for free, to be shared broadly. The curriculum is aligned to the Common Core State Standards and the standards of all 50 states. Most importantly, ReadWorks is faithful to the most effective research-proven instructional practices in reading comprehension.

ReadWorks is completely free. You only need to register to access all the resources.

More information: ReadWorks.org

Take a tour of the site: Click here

01/29/2015