General Music Classrooms: Where Neurodiversity Meets Neurotypicality

How do neurodiverse children engage with music? This Senior Capstone will explore both how music can break through the barriers holding autistic children back from interacting with the neurotypical world, and how creating a neurodiversity-inclusive classroom benefits the neurodiverse and neurotypical children in it. In this project, I will examine and implement pedagogical strategies for teachers with autistic and/or neurodiverse elementary-aged children in their general music classrooms. The implications of this research go beyond bringing more music into young autists lives: it explores the importance of giving autistic people a voice through integration in a neurotypical classroom, as well as showing their neurotypical peers just how much they bring to the table. In a controlled teaching environment, music can jump-start the process of giving young autistic people tools for self-advocacy that they can use throughout their lifetime