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Children struggling with learning, families navigating developmental challenges, adults seeking to understand their cognitive patterns – these are all situations where educational and developmental psychologists can help. But what exactly do these professionals do, and how can they support you?
We sat down with Daina Krasts, an experienced psychologist and Educational and Development Psychology Registrar at Step by Step Psychology, to demystify this specialised field.
Daina has many years of experience working with children, families, and educators, and holds qualifications in Master of Educational and Developmental Psychology having previously completed an undergraduate degree in psychology and Graduate Diploma of Psychology. In this comprehensive interview, she explains the unique role these professionals play in supporting learning, development, and wellbeing across the lifespan.
Can you explain what an educational and developmental psychologist does and how you’re different from clinical psychologists?
While clinical psychologists tend to focus primarily on mental health disorders and therapeutic treatment, educational and developmental psychologists specialise specifically in how people learn, grow, and adapt across their entire lifespan. Our work is deeply rooted in understanding the educational process and developmental milestones, which gives us a unique lens for helping people navigate learning and developmental challenges.
What does a typical day look like for an educational and developmental psychologist?
Educational and developmental psychologists spend a significant portion of time conducting assessments to identify learning disorders, neurodivergence, and developmental delays. We try to understand the full picture of our clients’ cognitive, emotional, and behavioural concerns.
We also provide intervention and counselling therapy sessions tailored to each client’s specific needs.
To get insights into how a child functions in their learning environment you’ll often find educational and developmental psychologists in schools doing classroom observations.
We also collaborate with teachers and other allied health professionals to ensure we’re all working together effectively. And of course, we spend considerable time supporting parents, helping them understand their child’s needs and develop strategies for home.
What kinds of clients see educational and developmental psychologists?
While we primarily work with children, families, and educators, we actually see clients across the entire lifespan from preschoolers all the way through to older adults. Our child clients are usually attending kindergarten, primary school, or high school, and many are neurodivergent individuals who need specialised support.
We also provide consultation and support to parents and educators. Often, the adults in a child’s life need guidance and strategies just as much as the child needs direct support.
What kinds of problems do you help people with?
The scope is really quite broad because we focus on supporting wellbeing, development, and learning throughout life.
We work extensively with learning disabilities including reading difficulties (dyslexia), writing challenges (dysgraphia), and difficulties with maths (dyscalculia). Intellectual and developmental delays are also a significant part of my practice.
Social and emotional difficulties make up a large portion of my work too. This includes helping children with emotional regulation, navigating sibling conflicts, building secure attachments, managing friendship challenges, and addressing parent-child relationship issues.
We also spend a lot of time helping families understand neurodivergence and what it means for their daily lives.
Mental health concerns, particularly anxiety and depression related to specific life stages, are areas where we can offer specialised support. We also help people prepare for major transitions. Change can be challenging whether that’s starting primary school, moving to high school, or transitioning beyond school into work or further education.
Self-esteem, self-confidence, and identity development are crucial areas, especially for young people.
School Can’t or school avoidance is also an area we assist. We help both schools and families support children who are struggling to attend regularly.
For adults, we address work stress, parenting challenges, mental health concerns, relationship difficulties, and various life transitions that connect back to their learning and developmental history.
How do you actually help your clients? What methods do you use?
We use assessments to diagnose neurodevelopmental and learning disabilities across the lifespan. These assessments give us the roadmap for intervention.
Our intervention and counselling work is always grounded in evidence-based practices, but we develop and implement each intervention specifically for the individual client’s needs.
We also work closely with other allied health professionals and educators to ensure our goals are aligned and we’re all on the same page.
When should someone consider consulting with an educational and developmental psychologist?
There are several key situations where I’d recommend seeing an educational and developmental psychologist. These include:
- If there’s any suspicion of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism, ADHD, or learning disabilities, we’re qualified to conduct these diagnoses.
- If a child is struggling with learning, developmental, or behavioural difficulties including school attendance issues, learning challenges, neurodivergence, executive functioning problems, social interactions, emotional regulation, or general wellbeing and mental health concerns
- An adult with previous learning challenges, undiagnosed neurodivergence or late autism/ADHD diagnosis, life transitions and parenting support
- Whenever mental health support is needed that specifically connects to learning, development, and life transitions.
How to see an educational and developmental psychologist
No referral is required to see an educational and developmental psychologist. However, if people want to access Medicare rebates for our services, they can get a Mental Health Care Plan from their GP.
For assessment services specifically, paediatricians can provide referrals that enable access to Medicare rebates.
What are the benefits of working with an educational and developmental psychologist?
Educational and developmental psychologists have completed specialised Educational and Developmental master’s degrees and post-master’s endorsement programs, so our expertise is very targeted and deep.
We’re uniquely specialised in understanding how people learn, grow, and adapt across the entire lifespan – that developmental perspective is woven through everything we do.
We’re also specifically trained in conducting psychoeducational assessments.
But I think one of our greatest strengths is our ability to collaborate effectively with schools, families, and other allied health professionals. We’re used to working as part of a team and coordinating care across all the different environments where our clients spend their time.
Educational and Developmental Psychology at Step by Step Psychology
At Step by Step Psychology, we administer cognitive, educational, and diagnostic assessments across the lifespan, which includes detailed intake sessions, thorough assessments, feedback sessions, and comprehensive written reports with practical recommendations that families and schools can actually use.
Our intervention and counselling services cover children, adolescents, adults, parents, and families. We address a wide range of concerns using diverse, evidence-based therapy approaches that we tailor to each person’s needs.
We have a client-centred approach approach tailoring therapy and supports to the individual client and their family.
We also maintain strong consultation and collaboration relationships with schools. This includes conducting classroom observations and maintaining ongoing communication with school staff to ensure everyone is working together consistently to support our clients.
Any final thoughts for people considering this type of support?
I’d encourage people not to wait if they’re concerned about learning, development, or related mental health issues.
Early intervention makes such a difference, and we’re here to support not just the individual, but their whole family and educational team. The goal is always to help people understand themselves better and develop the strategies they need to thrive in their learning, relationships, and life overall.
Step By Step Psychology works with children, adolescents and their families using a client-centred approach. Their dedicated team of psychologists offer a range of supports inluding therapy, assessments and school support. Learn more about them here.
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