This paper examines the plight of the child with a learning disability who enters a classroom to hear only a foreign language, to misunderstand the accompanying nonverbal signals, and to see only alien symbols written on the board. This child with a learning disability will have difficulty in the classroom unless the teacher applies the basic tenets of the sociocultural perspective in learning, which include: (1) knowledge is a constructive process for giving personal meaning to experience; (2) one's interactions within a particular context influence one's construction of knowledge; and (3) neither knowledge nor context remains stable, but co-evolve as a natural part of human interaction and development. The work of Lev Vygotsky is discussed in light of current understandings of human neurophysiology with attempt to identify the antecedents for unsatisfactory classroom social interactions that exacerbate the learning problems for the child with disabilities. The paper suggests ways for the classroom teacher to address these restraints and provide scaffolded instruction within the context of authentic, real-life situations over an extended period of time to allow the child to reformulate and renegotiate social realities. Contains 22 references. (EH)