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Natural Learning Rhythms
A New Parenting Philosophy
By Jenn Director Knudsen
A growing number of organizations including those working with families, school-age children, athletes, healthcare professionals and other groups from Vermont to Missouri to the West Coast have adopted NLR into their curriculums and for use in training seminars. One such organization, Self Enhancement Inc. (SEI) in Portland, Ore., is incorporating the NLR approach to child development into one of its programs to benefit youth and families. Gerald Deloney, SEI's director of program advancement, says he thinks so highly of NLR because of its totally child-focused rather than adult-focused theories on child development. "For me, NLR is structured in a way that gives insight and direction on how a child organizes [his or her] world at different stages of development, which makes this approach 'child-centered,'" Deloney says.
SEI works with the same kids for nearly 17 years from second grade through age 25 so continuity, through and into each stage in these kids' lives, is essential. "Adopting a sound developmental approach was and is key for achieving our organization's ultimate goal of cultivating 'positive contributing citizens,'" Deloney says.
Luvmour says parents are mired in worry over whether they "mess things up" at home and in their children. He implores parents to stop this cycle and instead give his NLR a chance, a chance to create well-being in your kid's current developmental moment and thus, eventually, well-being in the family whole. "If you bring that in creating well-being many of our wounds can be healed," he says.