About Natural Learning Rhythms™ (NLR™)

Capacities are innate; development occurs in relationship. What are the capacities of children of different ages? How can they be recognized? And critically, what kinds of environments nourish optimal development of each capacity? These are questions that every parent, teacher, and child-oriented professional yearns to answer.

Succinctly stated, Natural Learning Rhythms (NLR) maps the development of the innate capacities in children and offers guidelines to creating relationships that lead to optimal well-being for both the child and the caregiver.

NLR brings extraordinary clarity and simplicity to the subject of how the child develops by providing a detailed description of what is happening for the child in each stage of life. There are four stages and each stage has an organizing principle or innate capacity to receive, organize, and respond to the psychological and physical environments in ways that promote well-being. NLR describes in detail the psychological, emotional, and physical components that can be provided for the child in each stage of childhood that nourish the whole being. As well as providing a detailed description of those things that are harmful to the child’s development. Thus the parent comes away with an understanding of what is happening for their child and can meet their developmental needs with ease.

Natural Learning Rhythms offers considerable information on each developmental stage. For instance:

• Creating environments that support (or poison) well-being in the child
• Clear, simple descriptions of the special qualities, nature, phases, and characteristics of each stage
• An in-depth appreciation of how a child moves from one developmental stage to another—often the most difficult times for parents and teachers
• The importance of the language of each stage—key to successful communication
  
• The development of meaning within each stage
• Shifts in the perceptions of time and space during the stages and their implications for intellectual, social, emotional, and spiritual learning
• Identification of developmental malnourishment and of remedies that restore well-being in the child and the family

Amazingly, almost every family can nourish the well-being of a child. This means that Natural Learning Rhythms has value for parents, teachers, education administrators, counselors, therapists, and grandparents. In the vast majority of participants we have had in our programs since 1985, socioeconomic status or ethnic/religious background has not inhibited learning. Generally speaking, Natural Learning Rhythms has stimulated ideas about how to glean the best from the culture to boost family well-being.

All of this and much more can be found in Ba Luvmour’s newest book Optimal Parenting. Ba is also available for lectures, seminars and private consulting. Contact Ba.