Dear Santa,
I know you’re busy this season, but I’m needing help choosing a gift for my sister. After all, who better to ask than the gift expert himself? My sister has dyslexia and is currently learning to read, but I don’t know what to get her! Can you help me?
Happy December! With the holidays swiftly approaching, we’ve decided to channel our inner Santa and put together a gift guide for your friends and family members with dyslexia. People of all abilities deserve gifts that are interesting, stimulating and, most importantly, fun! Below are our favorite items, books and toys that will surely bring a smile to anyone’s face.
Stocking Stuffers
Don’t forget the stocking! While our gift guide was created with people with dyslexia in mind, these are perfect stocking stuffer ideas for anyone, but especially great for beginner readers and writers.
Learn the ABCs
Do you have a child who is starting to learn their ABCs? The Sandpaper Letters from Adena Montessori aids students in learning how each shape looks and is supposed to be written. These cards use colors and a sandpaper surface for their letters so students can trace the letter while learning. This is great for tactile learners.
They’re Making a List and Checking It Twice
Help them write their Christmas list! These one-size-fits-all pencil grippers were designed by doctors to help both children and adults have more control over their writing utensils. They’re good for both lefties and righties, can be used past the training period for general comfort, fit many different types of writing utensils and come in fun colors!
Holiday Lights
The Finger Focus Highlighter is a tool that children can use when reading books they received for the holidays! This tool is put on the index finger of the reader and has a transparent, colored rectangle at the tip that highlights each word individually as the person reads. This helps them stay focused on the current word. This is great for readers who may get easily distracted.
Ringing in the New Year
The hand2mine Phoneme Phone is an especially fun one. When children speak into the receiver, they’ll hear their voice amplified on the other end! This phone is great for out-loud reading because the reader will be able to practice sounding out words.
Snow! Snow! Snow!
Okay, maybe not snow, but it’s pretty close! This educational play foam alphabet set is another great gift for your tactile learners. Unlike typical writing exercises that use a writing utensil, this gift uses play foam to create the shape of the letter. It’s also fun to play with in general!
For the Hardworking Elf
The holidays are great for relaxing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be productive! Here are some of our favorite tools for those that want to get some work done in between the holiday festivities.
Holly to Jolly Blocks
The Original Montessori Phonetic Reading Blocks are great for teaching children with dyslexia how to spell. These phonetic reading blocks have vowels painted in blue and consonants painted in red, making these perfect for learning vowels versus consonants. These are great for introducing rhyming words. For example. twisting the “h” block in “holly” could introduce the word “jolly.”
Even Better than Wrapping Paper
The MaxAids: Raised Lines Paper with wide lines is perfect for writing letters to Santa. Not only are there built-in margins, but the raised baselines and dotted half-space lines act as the perfect writing guide. This way, students can practice spelling and making their letters uniform.
Who Says Working Can’t Be Fun?
Zingo! is a matching game that strengthens matching and language skills using simple objects such as a hat, a heart and a ball. While matching, children learn to associate those objects with the words also on the card. Zingo! Also has variations to teach children numbers, sight words and how to build words. Play with your entire family and see who can match the fastest!
Rudolph the “Read” Nose Reindeer
What better way to spend time with those around than by sitting around the fireplace, drinking hot chocolate and reading a good book? Here are some of our favorite books for the reader in your life!
It’s Called Dyslexia (Live and Learn series) by Jennifer Moore-Mallinos
It’s Called Dyslexia is part of Barron’s Live and Learn series. This series is set from a child’s point of view and encourages those struggling with self-worth or everyday activities to not be afraid of challenges. It’s Called Dyslexia is great for helping children understand and navigate the emotions they may feel when facing a challenge or difficult situation.
This book is especially great for parents to read with their children because there are exercises that follow the story!
The Alphabet War: A Story about Dyslexia by Diane Burton Robb
The Alphabet War follows Adam, a student who fights with his letters. To Adam, the “q” looked like “p” and “b” looked like “d.” The important takeaway of this story is that anything is possible, even if it requires a bit of help from the proper source. Use this as a teaching opportunity to let your children know they can reach out to you for help!
Finding My Superpower: A Book for Dyslexic Thinkers by Sarah Prestidge
Instead of forcing dyslexic thinkers to fit the mold of society, Finding My Superpower encourages dyslexic thinkers to see the world through their own eyes and be who they truly are. Highlighted in the book are celebrities, inventors and well-known people who have dyslexia, showing that dyslexia can’t and shouldn’t stand in the way of someone’s goals. See if you and your child can spot your favorite celebs!
For Santa
Don’t think we forgot about you! Here are fantastic resources you can use when helping your child learn how to read and write.
Orton-Gillingham Word List Dictionary
These dictionaries are perfect for lesson planning. With four different volumes, you’ll never run out of content! Try writing a holiday story with your child using some of the words in each volume!
Find Volume 1 here.
Find Volume 2 here.
Find Volume 3 here.
Find Volume 4 here.
We’d love to see any gift-opening or unboxing videos of these items, so be sure to follow and tag us on social media! You can find us on Instagram and Facebook. We hope you and your family have a safe holiday season and we look forward to seeing you in the new year!
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