Our Team
Gustav Steinhardt
Dr. Steinhardt is a lecturer at UC Berkeley, where he teaches courses on behavioral science, biological anthropology, and the human brain. His extensive teaching history includes designing and leading Diversities of the Human Brain, the first combined neuroscience and neurodiversity studies course in the UC system. Dr. Steinhardt translates complex neuroscience concepts into everyday language that parents can actually use.
Co-Founder
Elizabeth Cobb
Elizabeth is a neurodivergent parent of two neurodivergent children. Her career has been a study of how people inhabit systems—from studying anthropology and architecture at Princeton and University College London, to helping launch a startup acquired by Oracle, to managing editorial projects for global design firm Gensler. Elizabeth translates cultural anthropology into practical ways parents can understand and support their children.
Co-Founder
“The hard science is useful for pulling up patience reserves.”
—Regina, learning specialist
“I’ve taken a lot of classes for parents and this class has been my favorite.”
— Liliana, parent and reading specialist
The Built Curious Story
Built Curious Workshops originated when Elizabeth, a parent with a cultural anthropology degree and a neurospicy family, took Dr. Steinhardt’s Diversities of the Human Brain course at UC Berkeley. The course was so successful in helping Elizabeth understand her family—and reframe her understanding of neurodiversity—that she asked Dr. Steinhardt if he’d like to teach a course for parents.
Frequently Asked Questions
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No problem! Life happens and the course is designed with busy parents in mind. All sessions are recorded and we offer follow up 1-1 conversations to answer questions you may have about the material. In fact, some of our favorite questions have come from these 1-1 catch up sessions!
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The course is offered online starting this spring, but has been offered to three cohorts in person in the past. Many people have asked for an online option, so we’re happy to launch the online course!
The courses are offered live but if you miss a session, don’t worry! We’ve got you covered with 1-1 catch up sessions and you can also watch the recorded session. -
Any age! We’ve had parents with children from ages 3 to 19 and parents of young adults. Typically, we find most parents have children in the 5-12 age range.
Parents of older kids often share wisdom with parents of younger children. That said, some parents of younger children have wisdom to share with parents of teenagers who are newly diagnosed and working to understand neurodivergence for the first time. -
This is not a traditional parenting course. You won’t get any advice or plans you have to follow. No one has time for that anyway. Our course is about learning to think and talk in new ways about our kids. People tell us that they understand their children more fully after taking our course.
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Our courses contain four to six weeks of material.
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At this time, we do not offer standalone sessions. Even though we’d love to offer individual modules, we find that so much of what parents love about the course is connecting with each other over time and even keeping in touch! It’s hard to do that with standalone modules, but we will keep thinking about this.
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No! We’ve had families with formal diagnoses, families with no diagnosis, and families who don’t want to pursue a diagnosis at all.
The Built Curious approach cultivates an understanding of neurodiversity that doesn’t rely on the medical model of diagnosis. The workshop is meant to be a safe, welcoming space for all families. -
No way! Dr. Steinhardt makes the material very accessible for all parents and we find that even parents with advanced science degrees get something new from the material. The interaction between the medical and social components of neurodiversity are what make this class so interesting, so all backgrounds benefit from the course.
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Unfortunately, at this time, we don’t offer scholarships or a sliding scale. We’re exploring options for making this content available more broadly, and if you’d like to be notified when we do, please fill out the contact form so we can keep you in the loop.