Community Corner

Helping Kids with Autism Speak Through Music

Autism spectrum disorders are characterized by a frustrating inability to communicate, but music can transcend such barriers, says a Rock the Autism co-founder.

Local musicians started a charity in April called Rock the Autism, a group that aims to provide free musical instruction to kids with autism.

Rocky Neidhardt, one of the organization’s co-founders and a bassist with 25 years on the scene in San Clemente, said he’s found that many children with autism spectrum disorders—which are characterized by a dearth of communication skills—have an extraordinary aptitude for music.

“These kids are looking for a way to express themselves, and music is a language everyone speaks,” Neidhardt said.

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He said he and a friend, Joey Stantley, brought Santley’s son Luke, who has autism, to play on a set of drums. Luke showed an aptitude for the instrument but, more important, fell in love with it.

“He got on the drums and really, really enjoyed himself,” Neidhardt said. “After he got home that night, [Luke] was goofing around with chopsticks and kitchen utensils.”

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Rock the Autism is a young charity—Neidhardt filed the papers in April. He and the other members plan on having the charity’s first event near the end of August, but plans are still in the works.

Ideally, he said, the event would be a drum circle to introduce some kids with autism to the basics of rhythm, hopefully inspiring them to move onto more advanced instruction, provided by Rock the Autism.

Neidhardt said he and the other musician founders of Rock the Autism are putting together an album that they can sell to get cash flowing to the new organization.

“We’re going to release a seven-song EP, and that will be one of our fundraising tools,” he said.


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