Spiky cognitive profiles in neurodivergent people

How does a spiky cognitive profile impact us and the people around us?

Whilst we don’t sit around at work talking about our colleagues’ verbal reasoning and written skills, we do tend to make unconscious assumptions based on the norm. Because it’s true for most people, we generally assume a level of consistency in someone’s skills.

It’s not a big deal in theory, but in practice it can lead to misunderstandings and tension in work and in our personal lives. Because people are assuming we have a fairly even skill set, they fill in the gaps in understanding by thinking someone just hasn’t bothered to do a task properly, or is being obstructive rather than struggling. Neurodivergent people are often working really hard behind the scenes to try to cover up a deficit in certain areas that won’t intuitively make sense to other people.

They’re working overtime or dealing with high stress, but potentially still coming across a bit ‘slap dash’ or ‘slow’ in certain areas. Because they’re performing so well in other areas, people assume they’re just being lazy. In some cases, the assumption goes the other way. Based on a difficulty with taking in written communication, someone could be assumed to be lacking in intelligence in general. They might be a whizz when it comes to solving complex problems or delivering information verbally, but they don’t get a chance to perform, because they’ve ‘failed’ at the first hurdle.

So what do we do about it?

Acknowledging cognitive challenges, and emphasising strengths

A spiky cognitive profile means a big gap between strengths and (so-called) deficits. In clinical contexts, the focus has been on the deficits, as they’ve been used to identify specific disabilities, which helps with getting additional support in education. But how can an understanding of cognitive profiles improve our individual and collective experience day-to-day in other contexts?

Neurodivergent people will often take their strengths for granted (‘everyone finds that easy, don’t they? It’s no big deal’), whilst being hyper aware of the things they struggle with. This leads to self-consciousness, and reduced self-efficacy. There’s a sense of shame that comes with struggling on your own, with things that are hard to put your finger on or communicate about.

Acknowledging our strengths and developing a more compassionate inner voice is a game changer.

And how to deal with the things we struggle with? Ideally by being transparent and asking for adjustments, as long as we’re in an environment where this is going to change things for the better.

Upfront communication is ideal, letting the people around us know what we struggle with and how we might need things to be adjusted so that we can work at our best.

Personal responsibility and self-advocacy are key, but there’s a collective responsibility too. Advocacy and ‘unmasking’ are only supportive if they actively reduce shame and improve our day-to-day experience. For this to happen, the people around us would need to have a degree of open-mindedness, and willingness to be flexible.

Neurodivergence and adjustments in your working life

Some neurodivergent people work in environments where the culture is geared towards supporting people with reasonable adjustments, and designing working practices that can be adapted based on individual needs. Others find themselves in a work culture that rigidly sticks to norms, and where being upfront about their needs actually leads to ostracisation and stress rather than an improved experience.

Even within an unhealthy system like this, however, we can have each others’ backs. Having just one person at work who sees that you’re struggling and shows compassion and curiosity is a big deal. We may not be able to change a whole system, but we can create bubbles of care and humanity within them.

Many neurodivergent people end up designing a ‘niche’ in life that naturally plays to their strengths and reduces dependence on those skills they struggle with.

For example, now that I’m self-employed as a coach and trainer, there are lots of tasks and modes of communication that I just don’t have to deal with. I can generally adjust things to fit my strengths, and I can communicate my needs without a great deal of friction.

Understanding your own cognitive skills

An empowering step for most neurodivergent people is to get a sense of your own cognitive profile. Generally these things are tested in a professional setting by an educational psychologist or clinician. However, you can ‘reverse engineer’ things for yourself even by looking at the categories. For example, I knew that I got stressed and panicky in certain conversations, but I’d never really heard of things like verbal or auditory processing speed. Before even getting tested for these cognitive skills, just hearing of their existence helped me to put words to something that I knew was hard, but didn’t know how to explain (to myself or anyone else). That in itself is a step towards ending the internal shaming and questioning.

You can also do online tests for these sorts of skills, such as the Genius Within ‘Genius Finder’. This one’s great because they’ve created a broader set of cognitive skills that better accounts for neurodivergent strengths, and incorporates practical strategies and adjustments too. You can read about the scientific basis for their tool too if you’re interested.

Cognitive profiles are just one element of the complex landscape of neurodiversity, and can’t be neatly separated from other factors like executive functioning or social differences. But it can be validating and supportive to understand cognitive skills all the same, whether it’s for yourself or the people around you.