Your Questions Answered

An Integrative Cognitive Profile is a cognitive profile which identifies and explores interactions between various cognitive factors. Each profile is unique to the individual. In particular, we explore how an individual thinks, interacts with and perceives the world.

It is not a personality test and it is different from other cognitive tests because it looks at the interactions between the different factors. There is a tendency for people to look at ‘WHAT’ the difficulties are by identifying symptoms, however our framework is designed to look for ‘WHY’ the difficulties and strengths are occurring. By identifying the ‘WHY’ we can be much more precise in the recommended adjustments. This means you can get a greater impact which will help both you and those around you.

The process involves Dr Elizabeth Guest obtaining information from you through a structured conversation where you will be asked a range of questions. There is no set list of questions because every person is different and therefore different aspects need to be explored. We recommend that a relative or trusted friend is involved because they can offer useful alternative perspectives. For a workplace assessment, we insist that your main manager is involved - sometimes more managers are involved depending on the work situation.

The main goal is to identify the core underlying issues behind the symptoms and this will involve exploring both strengths and weakness. Often people are surprised that we are just as interested in what they are good at as with what they struggle with.

Whether the structured conversation is face to face or via video call depends on the location of the individual and their preferences.

You will receive a final report which gives a series of specific recommendations. Implementing these will help you to fulfil your potential and goals.

Each Integrative Cognitive Profile is unique to the individual. We require about half a day for a structured interview with the person and their manager (if a workplace assessment) and/or a trusted friend or relative. This is used to gather information from the person we are profiling. We recommend that a trustted friend or relative attends as well to provide support and additional information. As this is a very hands-on and intensive process for us, it takes up to 2 weeks to provide a report. You will then have one week to make any comments for changes. We will consider these comments and make changes (or not) as we feel appropriate. Mistakes and misunderstandings on our part will be corrected. Therefore it can take approximately 3 to 4 weeks from the actual data-gathering exercise to turn around a completed report.

The current wait time from your enquiry to the Integrative Cognitive Profile appointment is up to six weeks.

If the profile forms part of a workplace assessment, then no diagnosis is required.

However when a profile is required for a child or adult where the profile is not done as part of a workplace assessment, will generally be required. However, for children and adults outside of a Workplace Assessment, we typically require that they have a diagnosis or are on the diagnostic pathway for a neurodevelopment condition such as autism or ADHD.

The value of an Integrative Cognitive Profile far outweighs the cost. The first step would be to arrange a call to discuss your circumstances and see how we can help.

The profile can be life changing for those involved. It answers a lot of questions that allow individuals, their families, employers, and education settings to be far more effective in how they understand, accommodate, and support an individual.

The profile is a significant and demanding piece of work, Aspiedent will provide you with a quote for the service once we know more about your personal situation. However, you can expect to pay between £1750-£3000 depending on the specific need.

What happens after receiving the final report is completely up to the individual. In some cases, the individual may feel confident enough with the information they have received in the final report that they don’t need any further guidance. For those who would like to receive further support from us, there are several ways we can help, such as by offering bespoke training and mentoring for the individual or training for managers and colleagues or family.

Once you contact us, we will normally respond within 48 hours. This is usually via email to schedule a convenient time that we can arrange a call to obtain further information from you about how we can help you.

There is no minimum age, however we usually support children from the age of five, young people, adults, and employers.

No, we can help people worldwide and offer training and assessments via video call.

No confirmed diagnosis is required for a Workplace Assessment. However, for children and adults outside of a Workplace Assessment, we typically require that they have a diagnosis or are on the diagnostic pathway for a neurodevelopment condition such as autism or ADHD.

No, we can support children regardless of their educational circumstances, in fact we usually find that we can provide guidance on how best to support them to access an education.

You may have noticed that we avoid using the term ‘Neurodiversity’ on our website and in our content. The term was first coined by Australian Sociologist, Judy Singer, to cover all ‘neurotypes’ within the whole of humanity.

However, the term ‘neurodiversity’ has morphed to mean disability. We believe this causes confusion because there is no agreement regarding exactly which disabilities this terms covers.

Therefore, we now choose to use the term ‘Cognitive Diversity’ as this term hasn’t been clouded with misinterpretation.

Unlike the various personality profiles or other psychological profile tests, an Integrative cognitive profile describes the cognitive profile of a person in a wholistic way that takes both strengths and weaknesses into account along with how the various cognitive factors interact. We uncover the fundamental underlying factors that make up a person rather than their personality traits.

These underlying factors may include how someone thinks and learns, how they process incoming information, their interests, focusing, attention style and whether or not there are any sensory differences, including differences in visual perception. In addition to these key areas of cognition, we also look at emotion and executive functioning.

The key difference with our approach to profiling is that we consider the full complexity of someone’s cognition. To fully explore this complexity, it is necessary to explore the interactions between the various factors. The result is that everyone’s profile is unique and it is not possible to have a finite number of categories in which to place people.

Our current waiting times are approximately 4-6 weeks, however we will inform you of available dates when we contact you.

The key part of a workplace assessment is a cognitive profile which identifies and explores interactions between various cognitive factors. Each profile is unique to the individual. In particular, we explore how an individual thinks, interacts with and perceives the world.

It is not a personality test and it is different from other cognitive tests because it looks at the interactions between the different factors. There is a tendency for people to look at ‘WHAT’ the difficulties are by identifying symptoms, however our framework is designed to look for ‘WHY’ the difficulties and strengths are occurring. By identifying the ‘WHY’ we can be much more precise in the recommended adjustments.

This means that recommendations are based on underlying issues rather than symptoms, which removes the guesswork and means that our recommendations work first time provided they are implemented. Targeted reasonable adjustments means greater impact for both the employer and employee. Generally, improvement is seen very quickly.

During a workplace assessment, we involve the line manager as well as the employee to obtain an understanding of the context of the work as well as a different perspective on the difficulties and challenges. Getting both sides of the story is invaluable for the process.

The process involves Dr Elizabeth Guest obtaining information from the employee through a structured conversation where they will be asked a range of questions. There is no set list of questions because every person is different and therefore different aspects need to be explored. We recommend that the employee is accompanied by a relative or trusted friend to provide support. Often they can offer useful alternative perspectives.

For a workplace assessment, we insist that your main manager is involved - sometimes more managers are involved depending on the work situation. Normally we talk to the employee and the managers separately, but if there is a very good relationship between the manager and employee, then this is often not necessary.

Typically we talk to the managers, then the employee and then the managers again. In the final conversation with the managers we are generally able to offer some initial recommendations.

The main goal is to identify the core underlying issues behind the symptoms and this will involve exploring both strengths and weakness. Often the employee is surprised that we are just as interested in what they are good at as with what they struggle with.

Whether the structured conversation is face to face or via video call depends on the location of the individual and their preferences.

We insist that both the manager(s) and employee receive the report and have a chance to comment on it to correct any factual errors and misunderstandings. This report will provide a targeted recommendations.

No diagnosis is required for a workplace assessment. If the employee wishes, we can suggest a diagnosis (or diagnoses) they may wish to explore if we believe that it is likely they have this condition or conditions.

But note we are not qualified to make any diagnoses.

The value of an Integrative Cognitive Workplace Assessment far outweighs the cost. The first step would be to arrange a call to discuss your circumstances and see how we can help.

The profile aspect of the workplace assessment can be life changing for the employee and answer a lot of questions that allow the employee, their employer, and their family to be far more effective in how they understand, accommodate, and support an individual.

The workplace assessment is a significant and demanding piece of work, Aspiedent will provide you with a quote for the service once we know more about your personal situation. However, you can expect to pay between £2500-£3500 depending on the specific need.

What happens next needs to be discussed between the employee and the employer. Sometimes, the final report is enough. Sometimes the employer and/or employee would like more input from us. This can take the form of training for the managers and team and/or one to one sessions between Dr Elizabeth Guest and the manager and/or employee depending on the context.

If the manager has a training role then one to one sessions for the manager can be vital to ensure that the manager is explaining things in the best way possible. This takes practice and requires feedback.

If we believe either the managers or the employee would benefit from further input from Aspiedent, we will put this in the recommendations.

Aspiedent will help you to find the best approach to raise the idea of a workplace profile with your employer and we are very happy to engage with the employer to help them understand the benefits and why you feel this will be a valuable process to you as an employee.

This depends very much on the relationship you have with your employee. If at all possible this should be presented as a way to help you best support your employee to help them do their job. If at all possible, it should not be part of managing a potential dismissal.

Often employees fear for their job if they feel they are not performing well and this can make them reluctant to discuss difficulties and solutions with their manager. Often, the best approach is to make it about you and the business more than about them.

There is no need to discuss any potential diagnosis with the employee.

To put it simply no. The workplace profile is about finding out why the difficulties are occurring and to provide reasonable, practical, and effective adjustments and actions to the benefit of everyone involved. It is a perfect opportunity to draw a line under what has happened before and build a new future with better understanding and mutual compassion.

The day of the assessment will usually last 3 to 5 hours, this generally involves an initial session with the manager, followed by 2 to 3 hours with the individual and then a further 30 minutes to an hour with the manager again.

This is the general format, but the format can vary. For example, we can see the employee and then the manager, or the employee and employer together. It depends on the quality of relationships and availability of managers.

We aim to have the draft report to you within 2 weeks of the initial assessment and to have the entire process completed within 3 weeks.

A copy of any diagnostic reports and cognitive assessments, if you have them, can be very helpful. We can often spot details that can help us understand the best approach on the day of the assessment. Any additional information provided by the employer or employee prior to the day are always helpful and well received.

But don’t worry if you don’t have anything.

The Aspiedent team are based in Leeds in the UK, provided travel expenses and time are covered we are willing to explore most possibilities.

Our Interactive Cognitive Diversity training is best done in person as it requires interaction that is difficult to produce virtually. For most other training we can adapt to a virtual platform.

For a workshop we prefer to limit numbers to 12, this is mainly because with groups larger than this people can find it harder to participate and share views and opinions. In our experience interaction drops off very quickly once there are more than 12 participants. We can tailor our training to accommodate groups of any size depending upon the desired outcome. However, be aware that retention is much improved if participants engage with the material.

We can do this but it will come at an additional cost and we will ask you to sign licence and confidentiality agreements. Recordings should be shared only internally within your business unless previously agreed with Aspiedent.

Yes we can. We will work closely with you to align your objectives to the outcome of the training and will look for ways of addressing the particular needs and outcomes required for your business.

It is necessary for us to present slides as part of our training. A flip chart and a room big enough for people to move around in is also helpful.

The provision of training materials will depend upon the type of training being provided.