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Introduction Let's think of working memory through a metaphor—a stage. Inspired by ideas from Alan Baddeley and Dr. Erica Warren, this...

Many parents feel overwhelmed at the thought of coaching their kids on social skills. Caroline Maguire believes that parents make the...

One of the biggest challenges parents face is when their child resists help with social skills. Caroline Maguire explains that this resistance often stems from two main reasons: shame and lack of self-awareness. Understanding the Resistance:

This month, we are diving into the seven essential skills that Caroline Maguire believes are crucial for the success of Wonderfully Wired kids. These skills can be explicitly taught to help children navigate social settings more effectively.

In our final blog of the month, we explore the opportunity for parents to discover their own wonderful wiring through the assessment process for their child.

For this week, we focus on preparing your child for an assessment, aiming to approach the process with honesty and respect. Main Focus:...

This week, let's dive into Dr. Liz Angoff’s metaphor of “brains under construction” to help us understand our children's brains in a...

This month we are featuring insights from Dr. Liz Angoff of ExplainingBrains.com. If you haven't listened to podcast, you should! Dr Liz'...

When I first started coaching my dyslexic son I was excited to introduce him to various speech-to-text technologies. I believed these...

In this month's episode of the Wonderfully Wired podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Nick Koshnick, who shared fascinating...

“I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say.” ― Flannery O'Connor Introduction Writing is a powerful tool for...

https://youtu.be/LkE76Rv1_lg

In the last number of months you would have heard me say on newsletters, podcasts and over coffee:  “Few things would change the story of our Wonderfully Wired kids more than developing their Executive Function skills.”  I’ve related it to how they cope in class, how it affects social skills and to their sense of autonomy and competency and their ability to advocate for themselves. This week someone on the Wonderfully Wired staff casually asked: What are Executive Function s

Social researcher Brené Brown says, "Fitting in is the opposite of belonging." This profound statement resonates deeply, especially when we consider the experiences of Wonderfully Wired children in our schools. In this month's podcast, my guest Victoria Bagnall shared a powerful analogy: “Equality is being invited to the party, Inclusion is being asked to dance, and Belonging is dancing like no one’s watching.” This made me realize how far we still have to go to create...

I am part of a civil rights movement fighting for neurodiversity. My life's work is about helping people see that some individuals just...

Introduction I'm convinced there are 3 things Wonderfully Wired kids need from the adults that care for them: unconditional connection, a sense of autonomy, and (the topic for this blog) growing competency. Reviewing the First Two Legs To support Wonderfully Wired kids, we need a balanced approach, much like a three-legged stool. Each leg is essential; without one, the stool cannot stand. Here's a quick recap of the first two legs: Unconditional Connection : We've discussed h

‘I love you too much to fight with you about your homework’ .  These are the words authors Ned Johnson and William Strixrud invite parents to say to their child.  It’s part of a strategy  to raise  Self-driven Children  by moving away from parent as enforcer  to parent as consultant .   Why should we give up managing our children’s lives? Johnson and Stixrud say  “You can’t make your kids do something against their will. You can’t make your kids want something they don’t want

In our region this Sunday is Mother’s Day.  For mothers of Wonderfully Wired children, the role of mothering is often blurred with that of tutor, teacher, coach, nurse, counselor, dietician.... On top of that many of us also parent neurotypical kids. Does anyone else wonder if in all of this, you  still get to be just mum? Maybe you are practicing remedial words with a reluctant dyslexic reader and wondering when you became a tutor. Perhaps you’ve taken to coaching your kid i

It was obvious to Liam that his friend Tadiwa was talented.   When he described his brain being able to do drawings ‘like an architect’, I imagined a bird's eye view of a floor plan -an extraordinary skill for a child to have and a likely indication of a brain that is spatially strong, able to rotate a mental image and see something from many sides.   Considering this strength, chances are good that Tadiwa is dyslexic.  Considering the way he struggles with written school wor