Developmental Education
How can a Developmental Educator help?
Offering both Adult and Children’s services
Developmental Educators, or DEs, are one of the newest allied health professions in the disability field, but they are also one of the most diverse. As part of the four year degree, DE’s develop the skills to work with individuals and those around them to help them, to live as independently as possible and to be an active member of their community. They do this through working closely not only with the individual, but also through gathering information from their support network.
Both direct therapy and observations will be completed. Observations of the individual engaging in different tasks and interactions across their natural environments are required to develop their goals and training necessary. This means that sessions often take place in a number of different locations, including in our clinic, education setting, care facility, at home or in the local community.
Some of the areas our team can assist with
Social Skills: The skills we use to communicate and interact with others, including use of appropriate language and non-verbal cues, and understanding the ‘rules’ like turn taking and active listening. These skills also include play skills, conflict resolution and risk awareness.
Behaviour Management Plans: These are created through observations of the individual engaging in everyday tasks and activities and identifying what the triggers for challenging behaviours are. Strategies are then developed and trialled to minimise the occurrence of the trigger and more appropriate responses if the trigger does occur. This includes developing self-regulation skills. Visit our Behaviour page for more information on Behaviour Management Plans.
Emotional Awareness and Identification: Self-regulation therapies support individuals to develop the skills required to monitor and control their behaviours, emotions and thoughts.
Daily Living and Functional Life Skills: The skills we utilise to physically care for ourselves, this includes activities like cooking and feeding ourselves, toileting and maintaining our personal hygiene. These are also the skills we utilise to live independently and access our community, like cleaning our homes, shopping for food, money handling and transport.
Much of this work includes working both with the individual, but also working with the individuals support network, teaching them strategies to implement across environments to ensure a consistent and collaborative approach is utilised.