Wonderfully Wired in May 2025
This month Sophia sat down with Elle to try to get a glimpse of where Wonderfully Wired has been in the first quarter of 2025,
The Podcast
“I’ve had the privilege of working with so many international experts” Elle explains and the recent collaborations with local professionals and activists has allowed her to study challenges specific to the context. “Insight does stretch across international boundaries” she says, “but what’s cool about working with people locally is we can look at what Neurodiversity looks like for Southern Africans.”
AI is the focus on the podcast this month for this exact reason. Elle describes it as a “possible equalizer” between a developed and developing context, “We finally have a tool with which we can effectively serve different brains,” she says, “and actually these things are much more accessible than we think.”
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Autism in Africa
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A highlight of the last few months has been Wonderfully Wired’s attendance at the ‘Autism in Africa Conference’ hosted by UJ and the Gauteng department of Education . The conference's main objective was to get people of all aspects of Autism support to collaborate on an African response to Autism support broader than just academic research. Prof de Vries from the Centre for Autism research in Africa (CARA) based at the University of Cape Town says that “by 2050, 40% of the world's children will be African and within that, the number of Wonderfully Wired kids who need support is just enormous”. There's a desperate need for spaces like this conference that look at Neurodiversity in the context and begin to create community and resources that make lives better.
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A Masters Degree at the University of Johannesburg
Elle was recently awarded one of five full scholarships for Neurodiversity
Studies through Postgraduate research in the Faculty of Education at the University of Johannesburg, an incredible program funded by Vice-Chancellor Prof Letlhokwa Mpedi .
“UJ has really taken the lead in the region with the study of neurodiversity in a broader context.” Elle says. Under the leadership of Prof Maximus Sefotho initiatives like the center for Neurodiversity in Soweto is working to educate and support the community. Prof Sefotho, Elle’s supervisor, is just as invested in the research as she is, with a dream of establishing a degree in neurodiversity in South Africa.
The masters is step one in Elle’s plan. Step two is a Phd in creating hope-based interventions for parents . “I’m understanding more and more that my role is to cultivate hope in the adults responsible for the next generation of Wonderfully Wired kids.” she says, and I watch light flood her eyes.
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