Please note that DDALA does not officially endorse, represent or have any legal connection with any of the resources listed below. These are websites, films, and books that many parents have found very useful in their personal searches for information on and about dyslexia.
Alabama Resources
The Alabama Branch of the International Dyslexia Association
ALIDA is a branch of The International Dyslexia Association. The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) is an international organization that concerns itself with the complex issues of dyslexia. IDA facilitates and disseminates research-based knowledge as to the causes and early identification of dyslexia and other related learning difficulties; and to promote the use of Structured Literacy for teaching reading and written expression.
Alabama Scottish Rite Learning Centers
Helping struggling readers is the primary function of the Alabama Scottish Rite Foundation. They accomplish this purpose by providing assistance to Alabama’s schools and teachers. Through the Learning Centers, they provide professional development for teachers in Alabama schools. Their professional development workshops target identification and intervention for severely struggling or dyslexic readers and the three tier model of reading instruction. They encourage the use of dyslexia intervention as a pre-referral intervention strategy. This effectively reduces referrals to special education for students with reading problems.
Alabama Game Changers (AGC) is a not-for-profit business created to identify children with Dyslexia in Alabama. Once Dyslexia has been identified they offer education about Dyslexia and instruction on how to obtain appropriate resources for the learning challenges ahead. It is their goal to fully equip parents/students to become informed advocates.
Roundtable Solutions is a 501(c)3 organization that exists to celebrate dynamic learners with unique learning needs. They believe that every student is wonderfully created. Their heart is to empower parents, teachers, and the community to celebrate them, accordingly. The name “Roundtable Solutions” came from the fact that all have equal position at a round table. They are determined to step out of the box and into the solutions that are ahead for you and your family…. and they’ve saved you a seat at the table. Your voice matters
Alabama Support Groups
Decoding Dyslexia Alabama – Parent Group – Facebook
Dyslexia Awareness and Support of South Alabama (DASSAL) Facebook
Madison Learning Differences Dyslexia Support Group – Facebook
Shelby County AL Dyslexia Friends – Facebook
Visit our What can you do page for more resources.
National Resources
Bookshare | www.bookshare.org
Bright Solutions for Dyslexia | www.dys-add.com
Children’s Dyslexia Centers, Inc | www.childrensdyslexiacenters.org
Dyslegia: A Legislative Information Site | www.dyslegia.com
Explore 1in5 | www.explore1in5.org
Eye to Eye National | www.eyetoeyenational.org
Headstrong Nation | headstrongnation.org
The International Dyslexia Association | www.eida.org
LD Online | www.LDonline.org
Learning Ally (formerly RFB&D) | www.learningally.org
Literate Nation | www.literatenation.org
National Center for Learning Disabilities | www.ncld.org
Proactive Parent | www.proactiveparent.com
Reading & Language programs comparison – created by the IDA | www.interdys.org/ewebeditpro5/upload/MSL2007finalR1.pdf
Understood | www.understood.org
Wrightslaw Special Education Law and Advocacy | www.wrightslaw.com
Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity | www.dyslexia.yale.edu
Films on Dyslexia:
The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia
Dislecksia – The Movie
Journey Into Dyslexia Like Stars on Earth
Inside Dyslexia
The Secret
Embracing Dyslexia
I Can’t Do This But I Can Do That
Book Resources:
Thinking Differently: An Inspiring Guide for Parents of Children with Learning Disabilities
by David Flink (2014) — An innovative, comprehensive guide—the first of its kind—to help parents understand and accept learning disabilities in their children, offering tips and strategies for successfully advocating on their behalf and helping them become their own best advocates.
The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning
by Ben Foss (2013) — More than thirty million people in the United States are dyslexic—a brain-based genetic trait, often labeled as a “learning disability” or “learning difference,” that makes interpreting text and reading difficult. Yet even though children with dyslexia may have trouble reading, they don’t have any problems learning; dyslexia has nothing to do with a lack of intellect. While other books tell you what dyslexia is, this book tells you what to do. (Note: Purchase the audio version.)
Blueprint for a Literate Nation
by Cinthia Coletti (2013) — Millions of American children today are struggling in school systems largely unable to meet their needs, and the problem will only deepen if we continue to approach it with anything less than total dedication to a solution. The widespread illiteracy and learning difficulty afflicting our children is not “somebody else’s problem”; it is a severe threat to the up-and-coming generation of thinkers and workers-America’s future workforce, electorate, and global community. We know what must be done to meet this threat, we see the changes happening already, and we must commit to keeping up our momentum. The time has come to turn the tide away from our country’s impending economic and societal catastrophe and toward the reemergence of a literate, dynamic America. This book not only provides facts and statistics that will scare and disturb you but also relates stories and scientific findings that will inspire you to make your own contributions to the cause. By following the intuitive, data-validated plan presented in these pages, you can help to steer the American education system in the right direction and keep it afloat-before it takes the entire nation down with it.
The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain
by Brock L. Eide M.D. M.A. and Fernette F. Eide M.D., Plume (2012) — In this groundbreaking book, Brock and Fernette Eide explain how 20% of people—individuals with dyslexia—share a unique learning style that can create advantages in a classroom, at a job, or at home. Using their combined expertise in neurology and education, the authors show how these individuals not only perceive the written word differently but may also excel at spatial reasoning, see insightful connections that others simply miss, understand the world in stories, and display amazing creativity.
My Dyslexia
by Philip Schultz (2011) — An inspiring memoir of a Pulitzer Prize winner’s triumph over disability. Despite winning the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2008, Philip Schultz could never shake the feeling of being exiled to the “dummy class” in school, where he was largely ignored by his teachers and peers and not expected to succeed. Not until many years later, when his oldest son was diagnosed with dyslexia, did Schultz realize that he suffered from the same condition.
The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
by Norman Doidge; Penguin Books (2007) — An astonishing new science called “neuroplasticity” is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable. In this revolutionary look at the brain, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge, M.D., provides an introduction to both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they’ve transformed.
Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy: The Special Education Survival Guide
by Pam Wright and Pete Wright; Harbor House Law Press (2006) — Realizing that your child has an LD (or any disability) can set parents off on a roller coaster of emotions. This fabulous book helped us distinguish facts from emotions in order to properly document the facts and best advocate for our daughter.
Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level
by Sally Shaywitz, M.D.; Vintage (2005) — A great book that explains what dyslexia is and gives parents tools for helping their children become fluent readers. One of the most helpful and informative books that most parents read early in their journey that really open their eyes and pointed them in the right direction to seek the help their kids needed.
Parenting a Struggling Reader
by Susan L. Hall and Louisa C. Moats; Broadway (2002) — This book helped explain how school systems work and provided real-world practical guidance on how to understand and work within the framework of the public school system. It also helped us understand the need to sometimes look outside public schools for additional resources.
The Human Side of Dyslexia: 142 Interviews with Real People Telling Real Stories About Their Coping Strategies with Dyslexia
by Shirley Kurnoff; London Universal, (2001) — Just as the title says, this book is packed with real stories by people with dyslexia. While many books on dyslexia focus on the mechanics of the learning disability, this is the human story of the people who live with it. Through their stories we learn their strategies and tools for coping with the reading disability. Many of the stories are inspirational and will be a comfort to parents who worry about their child’s future.
In the Mind’s Eye: Visual Thinkers, Gifted People With Dyslexia and Other Learning Difficulties, Computer Images and the Ironies of Creativity
by Thomas G. West (1997) — This inspiring book profiles gifted individuals who used nontraditional methods in their work as it explodes many myths about conventional intelligence and charts new vistas for today’s computer visualization technologies. Some of our most original intellects–Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Lewis Carroll, and Winston Churchill–relied heavily on visual modes of thought, processing information in terms of images instead of words or numbers. Thomas G. West examines the learning difficulties experienced by both famous and everyday people, and he explores how recent neurological research shows an association between visual talents and verbal difficulties. In the Mind’s Eye probes new data on dyslexics to see how computers enhance the creative potential of visual thinkers, as well as interactive computer applications at all levels of education and work.
Decoding Dyslexia Alabama 