Natural Learning and Learning Disabilities: What I’ve Learned As the Parent of a 2 Year Old

Many students with learning disabilities continue to struggle in the classrooms of our traditional school systems, where curriculum objectives usually take precedence over the natural processes of learning. In this article, I review and summarize what I have learned about learning through the observation and parenting of my 2 year old son. I reflect on the question: What do these lessons about natural learning teach me about instructing students with learning disabilities? While I conclude that students still need compensatory strategies, they also need the space to allow learning to move at its own pace, the freedom to make good and bad choices, honesty from educators, and they need to learn independence within structure.