Physically present and emotionally tuned-in parents have hunches and insight into what shifts are taking place and how information is being absorbed and integrated by the child. It feels spine tingling when you realize that all the seemingly random dabblings, momentary infactuations and prolongued do-nothing periods really DID manage to coalesce and fill in significant brain space.
What is even more fascinating is that by learning in this intrinsically satisfying, free flow fashion, the child may, in fact, be better able to recall learned facts and concepts with clarity than his schooled counterparts. How can that be?
Schooled children are following a curriculum which tells them what to do, when to do it and how to demonstrate their understanding of it. Children who are learning naturally are following their bliss, wonder and passion. They learn things because they LOVE to - they choose to, either through interest or determined personal need. The schooled child is often doing what he has to because of concern of what will happen if he doesn't. He memorizes what he has to, reads what he has to, produces what he has to... flush the toilet and the majority of it disappears from short-term memory. Teacher pleased, end of the uninspiring adventure -- the conscious mind sees no point to hanging on to learning which brought little pleasure.
Conversely, the child who is learning naturally will demonstrate the learning in the precise way that is necessary for that individual child to integrate what he is learning. Learning could be integrated in very explicit ways - a drawing, a self-made song or story, a puppet play, a speech or conversation; or, it could synthesize internally - an invisible connecting-the-dots while lying and looking at the stars on a clear night. The truth is, when we first begin this journey, much of what a child is learning and absorbing we may not know at any given moment in time. It's a sacred mystery that is constantly unfolding, and as we become are attuned, we get larger glimpses into what is going on inside that exquisite mind through a song, a sand box creation, a conversation or explanation, a performance or art piece.
A child always knows her Optimal Rightness with respect to learning and orienting herself in the world. Oftentimes this involves, from an outsider's perspective, a lag or hiatus, which, if we peer inside, is simply the absorbed learning percolating... waiting to combine with another tidbit before it becomes alive and active and ready to be explored and experimented with in glee.
The fact that most of our children are committed to an institution that does little to nurture the joy, wonder, choice, and passion-led desire to learn is completely astonishing. The belief that learning should be linear can and should be tossed out the window. If we want to raise children in a way that serves humanity and a positive future, we must allow for the child's learning to develop on its own time line and in its own way. We must embrace all of the child's unique learning ways, however focused or however sporadic learning appears. Even if learning seems invisible and isn't immediately followed up by an outward "demonstration", we can trust that a living, breathing human being, participating in the world her, is always learning and deeply desires to absorb as much as she is developmentally capable of. 
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