Teachers, parents, and students should be seeing subtle and obvious changes in how dyslexia is identified and how educational services are delivered in schools.

Digital Choices

One simple measure to enact positive change is for educators and parents to act jointly during an Individualized Education Program meeting to bring accessible educational materials (AEM) at no cost to an eligible student. This student does not thrive using traditional learning materials in print. AEM is not a solution to the larger problems of identifying dyslexia earlier and intervening broadly with appropriate instruction. The AEM program brings a federally funded and free support to eligible students when print is a barrier to learning. AEM is a continuum. The state AEM program, such as AIM-VA, should be considered when the digital choices by schools and the resources at the public library provide less accessibility than a student needs.

The AIM-VA blog offers information that supports students with a range of disabilities who are struggling to read and learn. The selected resources that follow are new and nearly new. 

New In 2016

• "2015—A Banner Year for Dyslexia," by co-directors, Bennett Shaywitz, MD and Sally Shaywitz, MD in January on the dyslexia.yale.edu website
• Coming in 2016: Two books from Maryanne Wolf, of the Tufts University Center for Reading and Language Research:
  • What It Means to be Literate: A Literacy Agenda for the 21st Century (Oxford University Press) and
  • Letters to the Good Reader: The Contemplative Dimension in the Future Reading Brain (Harper-Collins).
• "Microsoft's Learning Tools beta for OneNote hopes to help students with dyslexia," on Jan. 19 by Dieter Bohn on the verge.com website and "Top Dyslexia Apps 2016 – Microsoft One Note with Learning Tools," by Fernette Eide on Jan. 19 on the Dyslexic Advantage website
• "5 Good Math Apps for Dyslexic Kids," on Jan. 20 on the dyslexiahelp.umich.edu website