Wonderfully Wired

Welcome to Season 5 of the Wonderfully Wired podcast! In this insightful episode, host Eloise welcomes Corneil Claassen, an educational psychologist and co-lead at the Neurodiversity Center (NDC) in South Africa. Corneil shares her powerful mission: to create a world where every wonderfully wired mind – be it facing autism, ADHD, anxiety, or learning differences – is seen, supported, and celebrated.

Discover NDC's origin, a multidisciplinary organization supporting over 6,000 families, dedicated to affirming neurodivergent individuals who are "brilliantly uniquely wired". Corneil emphasizes shifting from 'fixing problems' to understanding, empowering, and celebrating differences. She discusses their holistic, evidence-based approach, including the Essence perspective, focusing on co-occurring neurodevelopmental profiles. Learn about their global reach and upcoming "NeuroHood" initiative, democratizing safe, accessible neurodiversity knowledge worldwide. This episode offers hope and clarity for families and professionals navigating neurodiversity.

This special bonus episode of the "Wonderfully Wired" podcast features live studio guests Juju and Sophia, both young women who have served on the Wonderfully Wired team and are "wonderfully wired" themselves.

Juju, who has ADHD, describes her brain as a city constantly under construction, with changing alleys, roads, and houses. Sophia, who is gifted and intense, explains her experience as feeling emotions and sensory input "10 times more intensely" than others.

The conversation delves into the challenges, joys, and humours of living wonderfully wired. Both Juju and Sophia discuss the profound exhaustion that comes from existing and navigating a world not always suited to their brains, noting how they can thrive under pressure but struggle with mundane tasks. They highlight the difficulties of masking their neurodiversity to fit in and the hurtful impact of labels like "drama queen" or "too much". They emphasize the importance of grace for themselves and from others, particularly parents and teachers. The episode celebrates the unique talents and perspectives that come with being neurodivergent, concluding that they would not wish away their wiring, as it is an integral part of who they are.

Meet our tech-savvy friend Joan Green! Joan's been working with assistive technology since the 80s—and she's got the tools and stories to prove it. From calendar tricks and color-coded Google Drives to goblin tools and immersive readers, this episode is jam-packed with tips that make learning easier for our wonderfully wired kids (and adults too!).

• Easy wins with everyday tech
• Tools that organize your digital chaos
• Confidence for parents & empowerment for students

Joan reminds us: tech doesn't need to be overwhelming. With a little guidance, it becomes a powerful ally. "I just want to help people be the best they can be—and not be sidelined by their challenges."

This episode, the second of two in a series with Dr. Arno Louw from the University of Johannesburg, focuses on how AI can be a student's best friend and assistant, particularly for wonderfully wired learners. The key takeaway is to use AI to help with the work that is difficult for you, not to do the work for you. This involves prompt engineering, asking the AI better questions by giving it background about yourself, like your age, preferences, and learning style. AI can guide you in writing, explain complex topics simply (like explaining to a 10-year-old), and act as a practice ground for self-advocacy. For learners facing challenges like dyslexia, AI can help overcome bottlenecks and allow great ideas to be expressed. The episode discusses practical uses such as turning spoken ideas into written essays, creating visual aids like mind maps or comic strips, or even building games to understand concepts. It's vital to remain the creative force and the human in charge, using AI as a tool to do better work, and to disclose when you've used AI. Using AI effectively is a conversational process that requires checking, reviewing, and even arguing with the AI's recommendations, which helps improve both the output and the student's learning. AI is presented as a non-judgmental, tireless assistant that adapts to you, helping you understand content and yourself better. It's not a quick fix but a process that requires persistence and integrity. The conversation suggests AI could even revolutionize assessment by providing instant, personalized feedback.

What if AI could help tailor education for every learner? In this Part a of the Wonderfully Wired & UJ partnership episode, Dr. Arno Louw a senior specialist in instructional and e-learning and manager of the CAT lab at UJ, with his incredible knowledge, fun, and enthusiasm inspires us to see AI as a tool to support difference and neurodivergence.

We discuss how AI can be your brilliant teachers assistant that never gets tired, helping you earn extra hours and get administrative tasks done faster. Don't miss this insightful discussion on how to navigate AI anxiety and use this tool to support the wonderfully wired in your classes. Dr. Louw hints at the future, discussing how analyzing students' AI prompts could reveal their learning style and pattern. This understanding could then inform personalized learning experiences, potentially creating branching scenarios or even custom GPTs tailored to individual students!

Also catch Part 2 if you are a student that's wonderfully wired!

I loved my conversation with Casey Anley talking about burnout in the Wonderfully Wired. What does it look like to acknowledge each person's unique energy and work with the available energy instead overrding each body's need for rest.

What should you look out for in yourself and in your child?

Casey Anley is an educational psychologist. She wears many hats - neurodiversity advocate, executive function coach trainer and supervisor. She's built a career in helping neurodivergent minds untangle the chaos, build systems that actually work, and, most importantly, stop beating themselves up in the process. Casey has trained, mentored, and supervised executive function coaches worldwide.

From students drowning in deadlines to professionals juggling a million tabs (in their browsers and their brains), Casey is all about practical, real-life strategies that make life easier. With experience as a teacher, learning support coordinator, therapist, lecturer, coach and her current focus as coach supervisor - not to mention her own journey with neurodiversity - she gets it.

Dr Peg Dawson has had a fruitful career as school psychologist and for over 20 years worked at the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders in New Hampshire for which she received a liftime achievement Award from the American National association of School Psycologists.

Her contribution to all of our collective understanding of Executive Functions and how we can help wonderfully wired kids that are clearly Smart but Scattered develop them has been profound.

And Dr Dawson is far from done!

Smart but Scattered, The Revolutionary Executive Skills Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential is the title of the book Dr Dawson coauthored a second edition of which is now on the shelves that is the base of much of our discussion.

Dr Jade Rivera is professor at the Bridges Gradual School for Cognitive diversity with a passion for 'a strength based world for neurodivergent humans'

She's been a force for change in education for wonderfully wired kids for over fifteen year designing 'micro schools' that serve niche communities in creative ways showing ideas like project based learning and grade less classrooms aren't just fanciful dreams.

Anyone who spends a bit of time on Dr Rivera's newsletter on Substack will quickly see her depth of knowledge and infectious passion.

I've invited her on the show to talk to us about her most recent baby, and maybe greatest contribution in running the STRENGTH based assessment lab at Bridges: where we get to pack away all we've learnt about assessment, all our stress and anxiety and see in action something significantly different.

"There is a prevailing narrative that black dads are deadbeats, that they often abscond their responsibilities." said Buzwe Mabuza, founder of Black Dad's are Cool Dads and one of my three guests on the podcast this month

"Providing and disciplining. That's all that we were told we can look forward to when we become dads.But I'm a present dad, I'm active and I have a couple of friends who are also active and present. Therefore we decided as opposed to just complaining, let's do something about it."

I interviewed Caleb Chavalala, Buzwe Mabuza and Mosi Molefe of FCN (Fathers of Children with Neurodiversity) a vibrant online community out of South Africa made of men supporting one another in parenting their Wonderfully Wired kids.

You are in for a treat!

"If the research shows that Working Memory is a better indicator of academic success than IQ, then why aren't we honing in on this skill in education?"

This compelling question is posed by Dr. Erica Warren, our guest on this month's Wonderfully Wired podcast. For quite some time, we've understood that IQ isn't the sole predictor of a child's academic success. Children can exhibit areas of extraordinary IQ yet struggle academically.

What if enhancing the Executive Functioning skill of working memory is the most practical way to improve academic performance? Dr. Warren certainly thinks so.