The Dyslexia Support South group, started in 2010 by Invercargill woman Chris Cole and its funding arm the Learning Differences Aotearoa Trust started in 2017, have been wound up.
Ms Cole said when the group started, dyslexia, a learning difference where people have difficulties reading, writing and spelling, was not as talked about as it is today.
"The awareness has increased so much that schools are really on board.
"People are just talking about it more and it’s a lot more mainstreamed than it ever was."
The structured literacy programme being run in schools was also helping children who had difficulty with reading and writing and the Ministry of Education provided more support, she said.
While the support group and trust filled a gap at the time, there was not the same need for its services.
Ms Cole became interested in dyslexia when she started home schooling her four boys in 2005 and two of them were struggling to read and write.
The family were travelling in Tasmania at the time and someone suggested dyslexia might be worth investigating.
"I sat down and looked through a checklist of what dyslexia was and my kids just ticked the box and it was just like a light bulb."
When the family returned to Riverton and her sons to school they struggled.
"I just don’t want kids to feel like that so [I’m] very motivated to help other people on their journey."
That was when she and two other mothers started the support group.
Ms Cole used to run a workshop for children called Growing Stars which helped them learn strategies for coping emotionally with their learning difference.
She wrote a book, Growing Stars, based on the workshop content which was given to parents.
Nowadays her sons had left school and her journey helping people had also changed.
"I’m focusing more on workplace and in the tertiary sector, but I still do training for educators."
The trust’s website would remain active for three more years and people could access it for resources which included videos and an e-book copy of Growing Stars.
Limited hard copies of Growing Stars were available from the Young Reflections shop.
