
Our Team
Get to Know Us

Matthew Jardin
Developmental Educator, Clinical Lead, and Director
MHuServ (Disability Practice, Mental Health Practice, & Autism) Griffith, GCert Autism, BArt Ed & Lit USQ, AssocDeg Ed. DE (Full Practising Member, Developmental Educators Australia Membership No. #3324893)
Matthew is an AuDHD Developmental Educator, Clinical Lead and Director at Jardin Spectrum Assist. He is a degree-qualified disability and allied health professional with specialist experience in neuroaffirming assessment, functional capacity assessment, Autism and ADHD assessment contributions within multidisciplinary pathways, and post-diagnostic capacity building.
Matthew works with neurodivergent people across the lifespan, including Autistic and ADHD children, adolescents and adults, as well as people with co-occurring mental health, trauma, psychosocial and complex disability-related support needs. His practice is grounded in disability rights, lived experience, strengths-based assessment, and the social, human rights and biopsychosocial models of disability.
Matthew’s clinical work focuses on understanding how a person’s developmental history, adaptive skills, sensory profile, communication, emotional regulation, executive functioning, environment and participation patterns interact in everyday life. This supports a clear understanding of the person’s strengths, barriers, functional capacity and support needs across home, education, work, relationships and community settings.
Matthew’s lived experience as a neurodivergent professional shapes a practical, affirming and deeply respectful approach. He aims to create assessment and support experiences where clients feel understood, safe, accurately represented, and not reduced to a list of deficits.
As Clinical Lead, Matthew provides clinical oversight across JSA’s diagnostic, functional assessment and therapeutic services. He contributes specialist Developmental Education expertise to JSA’s multidisciplinary Autism and ADHD assessment pathway, and oversees quality assurance, report review, clinician mentoring, program development and service design. His role supports JSA’s work to remain clinically robust, person-centred, neuroaffirming and aligned with contemporary Developmental Education practice.
Matthew founded Jardin Spectrum Assist to improve access to affordable, high-quality Autism and ADHD assessment and post-diagnostic support for the neurodivergent community. His vision was to create a service with shorter wait times, clinically rigorous reports, and affirming sessions where clients and families feel respected, understood and accurately represented.
Matthew is committed to systemic change in the disability sector, particularly through better recognition of neurodivergent lived experience, improved access to assessment and support, and stronger representation of neurodivergent people in clinical and professional spaces.
Matthew's Interests: Matthew has a deep passion for poetry and lyric writing, often exploring identity, emotion and neurodivergence. Autism, ADHD and neurodivergence are also his most enduring areas of interest; they are not only his work, but a lens through which he understands people, systems and belonging. He is also a keen reader with a love for modernist literature, especially The Great Gatsby, drawn to its emotional depth and reflections on what it means to be human.
What is a Developmental Educator?
A Developmental Educator is a degree-qualified disability and allied health professional who works with disabled people across the life course. Developmental Educators use a human rights, person-centred and neuroaffirming framework to support development, inclusion, participation, self-determination and quality of life.
Developmental Education practice may include functional capacity assessment, adaptive functioning analysis, sensory and environmental assessment, capacity building, therapeutic support planning, advocacy, education, skill development, and collaboration with families, schools, workplaces, communities and multidisciplinary teams.
Within multidisciplinary assessment pathways, Developmental Educators contribute disability, developmental, functional, adaptive and participation-based evidence. This helps build a clear understanding of a person’s strengths, barriers, environment and support needs. Developmental Educators do not diagnose independently, but they can contribute important evidence to diagnostic formulation, support planning and recommendations within a multidisciplinary team.
Our interventions at JARDIN SPECTRUM ASSIST go beyond standard practices. We are deeply committed to respecting the individual narratives of autistic and disabled people. Our support is tailored to recognise and honour the unique strengths and experiences of each person we work with. As we continue to listen, learn, and adapt, our mission remains clear: empowering individuals to lead lives defined by their own goals, dreams, and strengths—free from societal limitations.








