Wonderfully Wired

Join us for an inspiring conversation in this first episode of the Season 3 of the Wonderfully Wired Podcast, featuring Zak and Nadine Judge. Zak, a university student in his twenties studying computer design, and his mom, Nadine, share their journey with ADHD. They discuss the discovery of Zak's difference, the decisions they made about his schooling, and the strategies that worked and those that didn't. The episode delves into the creation of a supportive family culture, highlighting Nadine's role in helping Zak decide what he truly wants from life and supporting him towards those goals. Additionally, Zak and Nadine open up about their mental health journeys, with Zak providing an uncanny description of how his brain works. This episode is a story of wounds and healing, character and resilience, gumption and determination, and the power of unconditional love and family support. It is a testament to the importance of seeing, supporting, and truly celebrating the Wonderfully Wired. The sound quality of this episode is not as good as our usual work! The content is worth it! Find a transcript at https://www.wonderfullywired.online/episodes

I took what I thought was a diversion into talking about physical disability inclusion with Scott Whitney of All4Inclusion and found that to see difference, to support challenges and to really celebrate gifts we must hear real stories of people with lived experience different to our own. As part of creating teacher training material on inclusion I collaborated with Scott Whitney to talk about living with disability and what it would take to create more inclusive schools. “The strong cannot be brave. Only the weak can be brave; and yet again, in practice, only those who can be brave can be trusted, in time of doubt, to be strong. The only way in which a giant could really keep himself in training against the inevitable Jack would be by continually fighting other giants ten times as big as himself. That is by ceasing to be a giant and becoming a Jack.” Heretics, G.K. Chesterton

Is it helpful to look at which part of the brain is dominant to help us understand our chidren's unique wiring? Is dominance only left or right or are there other modalities that can help us understand how our children process information, feel love or express frustration. Chantal Deacon Daniel introduces us to the Genetic Brain Profiling Tool . Chantal believes the tool can give us insight into our children (and ourselves) that can help families love each other better, discipline wiser and communicate clearer. We talk about the tool but also about Chantal's own story of resilience and the power of a mom willing to be intentional and tenacious in serving her family.

Meet Jessica McCabe, the force behind "How to ADHD." Seven years ago, Jessica embarked on a transformative journey, evolving from a place of self-doubt to becoming an advocate for understanding and working with the ADHD brain. In her own words, she shares: "Seven years ago, I didn't respect myself; I thought that I just needed to try harder. I dropped the shame, embraced the way my brain works, and developed strategies to accomplish anything I set my mind to. Now, I want this to be the norm—a world where discussing our working memory is as natural as talking about our eye color." Jessica's insights are a breath of fresh air, and this month, she unveils her latest creation, the book "How to ADHD: Working with Your Brain, Not Against It."

My guest on the podcast is Adell Bridges, a movement expert and yoga instructor who often credits her ADHD for the creative way she instructs bodies and brains on the mat. Adell is both a role model of a successful wonderfully wired adult and an infectious brain-body enthusiast and teacher. This episode is a gift to parents of wonderfully wired kids and parents who are wonderfully wired themselves.

Whilst we know that being "out of the box" is a good thing, it often creates difficulties for both us as parents and our children, when it results in explosive, difficult behaviour. Dr Greene offers so much hope and practical teaching to parents like you and I pulling out our hair, desperate to help a child who is often in trouble (or in distress!) due to his inability to consistently manage his frustration in an adaptive way. “Seeing your kid struggle isn’t fun.” says Dr Ross Greene. “The trick is to pay close attention to whether she needs your help or can manage it on her own. And the magic is in how, if she does need your help, you handle things from there.” I’m so excited to give you real tools in knowing just how to ‘handle things from there’ this month! Dr Greene explains the Collaborative Proactive Solutions (CPS) approach with clarity and practical examples.

Meg Faure is an Occupational Therapist, author, baby specialist and the founder of Parent Sense. Over the last 25 years, she’s worked with thousands of parents to help them understand their baby's sleep, feeding and sensory needs. ​ In this episode of the podcast, we talk about the sensory needs of babies, the way to create a calm sensory world for a little one and how to read and respond to babies sensory cues. I asked Meg if one can identify wonderful wiring in infants and how to respond wisely to early warning signs and special needs.

I invited Julie Bogart onto the podcast to discuss how wonderfully wired kids would benefit if education creates good thinkers rather than good test takers. Julie is known for her common sense parenting and education advice. She’s the author of the beloved book, The Brave Learner, which has brought joy and freedom to countless home educators. Her new book, Raising Critical Thinkers, offers parents a lifeline in navigating the complex digital world our kids are confronting. Julie’s also the creator of the award-winning, innovative online writing program called Brave Writer, now 22 years old, serving 191 countries. Julie says things like "Reading isn't voting", "There are no educational emergencies" and "the content we teach is just content". You're going to like what she has to say!

My guest on the podcast this month is Dr Jeannine Jannot. Dr Jannot is an academic coach and the author of The Disintegrating Student: Struggling But Smart, Falling Apart, and How To Turn It Around. She has over 25 years of experience working with children, teens, and young adults in both public and private school settings. Jeannine has a master's degree in school psychology from The Ohio State University and a doctorate in child and developmental psychology from the University of Connecticut. She began teaching college psychology courses in 2010, and in 2014 she founded The Balanced Student. You can learn more about her at JeannineJannot.com.

I used to think that good parents nip bad behaviour in the bud to prevent it from escalating into character flaws and discipline problems in kids. When a child of mine acted out, I interpreted defiance and felt a pressure to correct and instruct every-time. “As a psychologist I no longer work on behaviors.” Dr Mona Delahooke explains in her book Brain Body Parenting “I work on supporting nervous systems and looking to the underlying sources of challenges” Dr. Mona Delahooke is a best-selling author and child psychologist who aims to reduce suffering and increase resilience for children and families. She is a frequent speaker, trainer, and consultant to parents, organizations, schools, and public agencies. Especially of value to us is that Dr Delahooke has dedicated her career to promoting compassionate, trauma responsive, relationship-based neurodevelopmental interventions for individuals with developmental, behavioral, emotional, and learning differences.

Heather Wells is the principle of a Co Ed 4-18 Independent College in a very traditional education context and a struggling economy. She trained and started her career in the UK as teacher and school administrator with a specialization in management in Education and in Special and Inclusive Education. Heather believes education is about learning for tomorrow not just for exams and where individuals are seen and heard, where learning to learn is a process and individual skills and talents are recognized and exploited. I asked Heather: · just how possible she believes it is for Wonderfully Wired kids to thrive in conventional schools. · What shifts she believes teachers and schools can make to really foster inclusive classrooms · and how she would encourage parents of Wonderfully Wired kids go about advocating for their kids.

Natasha Daniels has been an anxiety & OCD therapist for over two decades. She combines both her clinical expertise with her lived experience, raising her own three kids with anxiety and OCD. I ask Natasha what causes anxiety in children and we discuss ways a parent can respond to and help our children respond to anxiety. We talk about what it takes to see anxiety as separate from the person who feels anxious by personifying it and how that shift empowers kids and teens to 'talk back' to their anxiety. Join us for a practical discussion that will help you shape your approach to your anxious child and give you tools to love them well as they battle anxiety.

I used to think for someone to reach the highest level of education, they needed to be good at the early years of education. If you're going to be great at advanced math or astrophysics, then surely you need to start by being good at the times tables and spelling. And then I came across these words of Thomas West: "If a truly original method is needed, the conventionally successful student may be the last one to find it, sometimes only among those who have repeatedly failed is there a high likelihood of success”. Thomas West has written three books. As early as 1991, In the Mind's eye explored the cognitive advantages of the dyslexic mind - a good 20 years before the rest of the world imagined anything other than learning disability. His most most recent book, “Seeing what others cannot see", explores the stories and contributions of talented dyslexic and autistic visual thinkers in the history of medicine, math and sciences and discusses how such visual thinking is of increasing importance in the modern world.

I used to think Dyslexia is basically a problem with reading and spelling, and letter reversals. And then I came across the work of Brock and Fernette Eide and realised I was far off the mark. Not only was my understanding of the challenges someone with Dyslexia faces terribly inadequate, but I had no idea of the incredible strengths such a brain inherently has. Who even knew Dyslexia could be an advantage? But that’s exactly what the Drs Brock and Fernette Eide set out to prove twenty years ago …. They are the co-founders of Dyslexicadvantage.org and the co-authors of The Dyslexic Advantage and The Mislabeled Child with over 100,000 books sold, with translations into Spanish, Chinese, Japanese Korean, and Dutch. Both are international authorities on dyslexia and learning differences. In this episode Elle asks Fernette, on behalf of parents who see their children struggling daily, how their research and experience can help us see Dyslexia from different perspective.

I used to think that good parenting looks the same for all parents and all kids. And then I came across the work of Deborah Reber. Debbie is a parenting activists best selling author, podcast host and speaker. The TiLT parenting podcast has grown to be a top podcast in the iTunes kids and family category with more than a million downloads, and a slate of guests that include high profile thought leaders across the parenting, and education space. Debbie is the author of Differently Wired, raising an exceptional child in a conventional world. I am convinced that a parent of a Wonderfully Wired child listening to this episode, feeling stuck and overwhelmed and isolated in their parenting can feel differently when they walk away. Because I think that's what Debbie's book does.

"Teach kids what they are good at and they feel better about themselves - it’s not that difficult" says Dean Bragonier Dean is the founder and executive dyslexic of NoticeAbility Incorporated, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to helping students with dyslexia, identify their unique strengths, and build selfesteem. Dean is a successful restaurant owner turned social entrepreneur who is currently touring the world, helping kids with dyslexia and their teachers understand their strengths. So is Dean right when he says that the advantages of dyslexia far outweigh the associated challenges?

Elle talks to Clinical Psycologist, Mark Kluckow and asks "How is 'Gifted' different from 'very smart'?" They discuss how gifted kids have special emotional needs and what parents can do today to see the strenghts, support the challenges and celebrate the complexity of their gifted child.

Listen to the trailer for Season 1 of Wonderfully Wired. Elle suggests the biggest reason why some kids that think and learn differently become successful adults, when so many do not. She extends an invitation to you to join her in becoming the kind of parent that helps unlock each child's potential by seeing their Neurodivesity as strength and potential. Elle introduces her expert guests in the season, giving a glimpse into the kind of insight and support you can expect Email Elle on elle@wonderfulllywired.online or visit www.wonderfullywired.online from October 1st, 2022