**Abstract**

Numeracy development of young learners has been proven to be innate. Research asserts how 6 months old infants were able to subitise group of quantities. The inner ability integrate itself with their curiosity as they develop further. Kammii also asserts that young children develop autonomy through their observations and curiosity of figuring out events. This indicates that, children have natural independent abilities for learning. However, schooling seems not to be able to maintain this. This chapter demonstrates through clinical interviews how this independent discovery occurs and such observations can be used to observe trends that inform Grade R/reception class numeracy instruction. Intellectual autonomy as presented by Piaget and Kammii is used to analyse students' data to elicit trends and themes that influence instruction to maintain self-regulation in their development. This chapter employs qualitative enquiry in getting insight to student's intuitions and how they contribute to independent learning.

**Keywords:** independent learning, numeracy, autonomy, self-efficacy, intuitions
