Developmental Educator vs Occupational Therapist - Which Does Your Child Actually Need?
If you're searching for an Occupational Therapist for your child, you've probably been told — by a paediatrician, a kindy teacher, or another parent — that "they could really benefit from OT." Maybe you've started ringing around. Maybe you've been told there's a six-month waitlist somewhere.
It's a confusing place to start. You're not entirely sure what an OT does, but you trust the person who suggested it. So you're trying to find one.
Here's something most parents don't get told until they're already in the room: depending on what your child actually needs, an OT might not be the right fit. They might need a Developmental Educator instead. Different profession, different focus, different kinds of work — but the names sound similar enough that they often get confused.
This piece is here to help you tell them apart. If you read it and decide an OT is exactly what you need, that's a good outcome. If you read it and realise you've been looking for the wrong thing, that's an even better one.
What is an Occupational Therapist?
Occupational Therapists work with how children physically engage with the world. The traditional core of paediatric OT is fine motor skills (writing, using cutlery, doing up buttons), gross motor skills (running, climbing, riding a bike), sensory processing, and the practical daily-living tasks that children need to develop independence in — dressing, eating, toileting, navigating the physical demands of school.
When OT is the right fit, it's the right fit clearly. A child who can't grip a pencil. A child whose sensory experiences are physically overwhelming. A child whose motor coordination makes basic tasks frustrating. A child who needs help building physical independence at home and school. OTs do excellent, important work in these areas.
Historically, paediatric OTs have carried a much broader brief than that. For years they were the go-to professionals for almost any developmental concern — fine and gross motor, but also sensory, emotional regulation, social skills, and communication. That made sense when allied health for children was less specialised than it is now.
Over the last several years, that's been changing. A newer profession — the Developmental Educator — has emerged as the specialist for emotional regulation, social skills, and behaviour. OTs continue to do excellent work in their core specialist areas. DEs have become the right fit for the developmental, behavioural, and emotional work that used to fall to OTs by default.
What is a Developmental Educator?
When I sit down with a new family for the first time, the first thing I want to understand isn't what's on the diagnosis letter. It's what their day-to-day actually looks like. What's hard about mornings? What happens at the school gate? Where do the meltdowns come from, and where do the moments of connection happen? Where does this child thrive, and what feels like a wall to them?
That's where Developmental Educators come in. We're therapists, friends, supports, allied health professionals, and everything in between. We work with the learning, behavioural, and emotional dimensions of a child's development — the parts of life that don't get fixed with a sensory tool or a fine motor exercise, but with patient, consistent, individualised work over time. Emotional regulation. Social skills. Building independence. Navigating big transitions. Helping a child make sense of their own internal world and the world around them.
We start with who this child actually is — what lights them up, what's hard for them, what they need to feel safe. We're never trying to change the person or ask them to be anything other than who they are. We want them to succeed in life, to have meaningful relationships, to feel their emotions and feel regulated, to feel confident, to be whoever they want to be.
A lot of what we do is unglamorous. We sit with a child who's overwhelmed and help them find their way back to themselves. We coach parents through hard conversations. We work with classroom teachers on small adjustments that change a child's whole experience of school. We support the whole family, the teacher, the school, the community a child lives in — we look at how we can support their whole world. We're advocates, and we're friends.
You see the work in small moments. The first time a child uses "I feel sad" or "I feel happy" without prompting. The first time they're able to say "my chest feels tight" when they're worried. The first time a teenager who never opens up confides in you about how they're really going. The first time they invite another child to play. The first time they take a deep breath instead of melting down. The first time a parent sees the version of their child they always knew was there.
DE work is particularly suited to autism support because the things autistic children most often need help with — emotional regulation, social understanding, navigating change, building confidence in themselves — are exactly what we specialise in. We're not trying to "fix" autism. We're helping autistic children build the skills and trust they need to thrive as exactly who they are.
Most of all, we play the long game. The most meaningful change in a child's emotional life doesn't happen in six weeks. It happens in six months, or two years, or longer. We're trained, qualified, and committed to walking that path alongside them — because we love what we do, and because we care.
How to tell which one your child needs
Ask yourself: when you think about what's hardest for your child right now, are you describing how they physically engage with the world, or how they emotionally and socially engage with it?
You're more likely thinking about an OT if:
- Your child struggles with motor skills — running, climbing, holding a pencil, riding a bike
- Sensory experiences are physically overwhelming for them
- Self-care tasks like dressing, eating, or toileting are persistently difficult
- They have specific motor coordination challenges affecting their independence
You're more likely thinking about a DE if:
- Your child has big feelings they can't manage yet
- Social situations are difficult — making friends, joining games, reading social cues
- Transitions and changes are hard for them
- They've recently been diagnosed with autism and you're not sure what kind of support comes next
- You want help with emotional regulation, behaviour, or learning strategies
Sometimes the answer is both. Many children benefit from working with both an OT and a DE — they're working on different things. If a child is dysregulated because of sensory overwhelm, an OT might be the right primary support. If they're dysregulated because of emotional overwhelm, a DE is usually the better fit.
If you're not sure where your child sits, that's normal. Most parents we speak to aren't sure when they first call. Working it out together is part of what an initial conversation is for.
Where we work, and why it matters
One thing that surprises a lot of parents when they start working with us: most of our work happens in the places where their child's behaviours actually occur. In their classroom. In the playground at school. At home, at dinner time. In the car park before the school bell. Wherever the real challenges show up.
That's a deliberate choice. We've found, over years of doing this work, that the most effective therapy happens in the settings where a child needs to use what they're learning — not in a clinic room abstracted from the rest of their life.
We made this our specialty because the results led us there. A child who builds emotional regulation skills in the calm of a therapy office and then has to apply them in the chaos of a noisy classroom is doing two different jobs. A child whose therapist is in the classroom alongside them is doing one.
It also takes time. We spend considerable hours in the places where children feel comfortable — schools, homes, sometimes both — because trust and safety are the cornerstone of how effective therapy can actually be. That's not a marketing line. That's the clinical truth we've watched play out across hundreds of children.
How NDIS funding works for this
Both Occupational Therapists and Developmental Educators can be funded through the NDIS, under the same therapy supports category. This means that if your child has NDIS funding, you can choose either profession depending on what they actually need.
A few practical points worth knowing:
If your child's NDIS plan is plan-managed or self-managed, you can choose any qualified provider — registered or not. This includes us; we're an NDIS provider supporting plan-managed and self-managed families across Adelaide.
Not sure what kind of plan your child has? Look at the top of your most recent plan letter, or ask your Local Area Coordinator (LAC) or Plan Manager. If you're calling around providers, that's also a sensible first question for any of them.
A word on continuity
Developmental therapy isn't a quick fix. Real change in a child's emotional regulation, their social world, the way they navigate the things that are hard for them — that happens over months and years, not weeks. Which means who the therapist is matters as much as what they do.
A child who's worked through trust and routine with one DE for two years is going to make different progress than a child who's seen four different therapists across the same time. The skills look the same on paper. The relationship behind them is the difference.
We've built our practice around that. Same therapist, year after year, calmly and consistently. We advocate hard for our clients — at school meetings, in NDIS reviews, in conversations with paediatricians — because we see, again and again, what changes in a child when they know someone hears them, sees them, and is working alongside them through whatever is hard.
We've been around long enough to watch that happen, child after child, family after family.someone els
If you're still not sure — that's okay
Most parents we speak to aren't sure when they first call. Our Client and Operations Coordinator Missy takes those first conversations. A short, no-pressure phone call where we listen to what your family is going through, and help you think about the right next step — whether that's us or someone else.
Tell us about your family →
Sarah-Jane Stevens
Co-Founder & Clinical Lead, Assist TherapySarah-Jane is a Developmental Educator and Co-Founder of Assist Therapy, where she leads the clinical direction of the practice. She specialises in supporting autistic children and their families, with a particular focus on emotional regulation, social skills, and helping children build trust in themselves and the world around them.
"I founded Assist out of a belief that developmental therapy works best when it happens in the places children actually live their lives — schools, homes, and the moments where real challenges show up. I work alongside families across Adelaide, often for years at a time."
