Developmental Education

justice | equity | access | inclusion

How Can a Developmental Educator Support Me?

Developmental Educators are qualified disability professionals, belonging to the DEAI (Disability Educators Australia Incorporated). We work from social, human rights and biopsychosocial perspectives to support the whole person, youth or adult, within their context.

Developmental Education:

  • Uses a strengths-based and holistic, person-centred approach

  • Is evidence-based

  • Promotes agency & co-design

  • Is culturally responsive

Capacity Building

  • Ensuring you understand your rights: Education around human rights and systemic advocacy, building knowledge around consent, basic legal rights, including rights to ensure people with disabilities receive equitable access to education, community and quality of life.

  • Daily life skills: Energy management/pacing, increasing independence or interdependence, building positive identity, organisation, self-management, building routines, maintaining your self-care, learning about and implementing healthier and/or more manageable lifestyles, collaborative goal setting,

  • Emotional and sensory processing and regulation: Counselling and psycho-social support, safety plans, individualised emotion charts and use of language/words, meltdown management plans, sensory diets, sensory exploration and identification of needs, building self- and co-regulation skills and strategies.

  • Social and communication skills, including AAC (note: I will never teach you how to be you): Self-advocacy, boundary setting, understanding and responding to various communication styles, building communication tools.

  • Community, social engagement & relationships: learning to use public transport, accessing the community, safety, finding and trying new activities and finding your people, understanding romantic relationships, puberty and sexual health.

  • Work and self-employment support: Support in building workplace skills, communication and advocacy within the workplace, education for employers, developing plans for your own business, accountability and functional supports for running a small business.

  • School readiness, supports and accommodations: reducing barriers to participation, including environmental audit, teacher collaboration and education, observations, one-on-one or classroom strategies, communication and self-advocacy at school, ensuring education rights and access are upheld through appropriate accommodations and adjustments to learning.

  • Educating the support circle: advise on supporting “behaviour”, or distress, managing competing needs, self & co-regulation, plans and team collaboration.

  • Community, social engagement & relationships: learning to use public transport, accessing the community, safety, finding and trying new activities and finding your people, understanding romantic relationships, puberty and sexual health.

  • Transition planning and preparation: Moving schools or home, changing jobs, navigating new activities.

Needs Assessment

  • Sensory Profile - 2

  • Extreme Demand Avoidance - 8

  • Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire

  • WHODAS 2.0

  • Toronto Alexithymia Scale

  • Autistic Burnout Checklist

  • Executive Skills Questionnaire - revised

  • Life Skills Profile

  • Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale

  • Toronto Alexithymia Scale

  • Dynamic Assessment of Social and Emotional Learning

  • Anxiety Scale for Children - Autism Spectrum Disorder

  • Anxiety Scale for Autism - Adults

  • WHO Quality of Life - BREF

  • Autism Quality of Life Measure

  • ARC Self-determination Scale

  • Self-compassion Scale

  • Systemising Quotient

  • VIA Inventory of Strengths

  • Dynamic Assessment of Social and Emotional Learning

  • Environmental Audits & Accommodations

  • Communication Checklist - Adults

  • Self-management Assessment Scale

  • SSIS-SEL

  • DDIAL4

  • BASC-3

 FAQs

  • The work that a DE and an OT does, can look very similar.

    Both professions can focus on developing functional daily living skills and increased independence.

    The key difference is the study and specialisation within disability topics that a DE completes as part of their qualification. Our studies within disability mean we have a greater and richer understanding of:

    • The impact of various disabilities, as well as the interplay of comorbid conditions.

    • The historical and social impact on your disability, including ableism.

    • Strong understanding of human development and critical life stages.

    • An undertanding of barriers you may experience to reaching your goals.

    • Adapting our approach to meet specific disability needs: communication style, learning style, teaching approach, pace.

    • Training within trauma-informed practice and awareness of disability-related trauma and its impact.

    • Neuroaffirming approach based within disability-rights and human-rights.

    • Helping caregivers, educators, and communities recognise and understand disability.

  • DEs cannot provide qualification level C assessment (Pearson Clinical).

    Nor can we provide diagnoses, including diagnosis of psychological and medical conditions.

    Though we can utilise the prinicples, DEs cannot deliver manualised psychological therapies including CBT, ACT, DBT, EPT, EMDR etc. Management of mental health conditions should be overseen by a psychologist.

    DEs do not deliver the Australian Curriculum and are not Qualified teachers.

  • Kendra has a Bachelor of Psychological Science, a Graduate Certificate in Autism and a Master of Autism and Neurodivergence. She also has lived experience of Autism & ADHD and identifies with the Neurodiversity paradigm. In addition, Kendra has supported Autistic youth and adults for 8 years as a support worker & allied health assisstant (5 years within the NDIS).

  • Yes, you can request a Developmental Educator in your NDIS plan, especially if the support aligns with your goals and assessed needs. Developmental Educators are listed as an approved support in the NDIA price guide.

  • To read more about Developmental Education, visit the Developmental Educators Australia (DEA)

    Or, feel free to send us an email with any questions!

  • My Developmental Educator services are neurodiversity-affirming, meaning I work from the understanding that neurodivergence is a natural and valuable part of human diversity. I focus on supporting people to better understand themselves, build on their strengths, and access environments, strategies, and supports that fit their unique needs, rather than trying to change who they are. My practice is collaborative, consent-based, and respectful, prioritising autonomy, wellbeing, and lived experience while reducing harm from deficit-based or compliance-focused approaches.