emergent responsive neurodiverse community
I led an hour of music at the Berkeley Public Library over the last 4 Friday afternoons, that has included pat/clap games, turn-based ring plays, familiar singalongs, quodlibets (look it up!), pitched and unpitched percussion play, large movement, and lullabies. The library called it Music For Everyone (which is true! but was their wording), and … Read more
In pre-modern cultures around the world, music-making was just something that everyone did. There may have been specialists who excelled in one area, but they were not separated from the community—music was always a community activity. In modern society, music has been processed out of everyday life, and outsourced to a specialized class, who do … Read more
find a group of people/families/friends and learn how to cooperate. designate one person whom the group supports, unconditionally, to leave the salaried workforce, for 3, 6, 9, 12 months. let that person find their own way to support the rest of the group. think of it as a sabbatical. don’t expect them to do everyone’s … Read more
social interaction is a budget item, whether we see it or not I’m going to annoy you. Not because I want to annoy you, but because my role entails making information about our collective wellbeing legible, and with that come truths that take energy to metabolize. Just know that you’re being annoyed for a good … Read more
As someone who works with parents, I recognize that Hop On Pop has found its way into the lexicon. The Lorax would like a word with you.
What Global Cultures Can Teach Us About Supporting Neurodiverse Children Ryk Groetchen, Executive Director of imeetsweApril 2026Berkeley CA I recently had the good fortune to reconnect with Vodzi Torgboh, a teacher from the Ewe tradition of coastal West Africa. He was sharing social music-and-dance with a group of Western music teachers, transmitting rhythm as the … Read more
The case for universal early childhood music access for children 0–7 Our thesis is that music-making is not enrichment: it is primary nourishment. In the first seven years of life—the window of greatest neural plasticity—active musical participation supports brain architecture in ways that no other intervention replicates. Independently of talent or performance, music-making supports child … Read more