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Parents who suspect that their children have developmental problems or autism no longer have to wait three month to have them tested at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. Testing can now be done here in Fort Wayne at Prometheus Psychological Services, 6223 Constitution Dr.
Prometheus, which opened its doors in March, offers a full range of outpatient psychological services that includes evaluation and assessment of children, adolescents and adults, and is owned by Michael Scherbinski, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and health service provider in psychology (HSPP). Scherbinski said there are a number of signs that parents can look for in their children that may indicate autism and eliminate fears that they are doing something wrong.
“Early symptoms include being difficult to comfort and not wanting to be held,” Scherbinski said. “Also, delays in communication, preoccupation with unusual interests such as wheels or light switches, odd or repetitive way of moving hands or fingers, rarely making eye contact, preferring to be alone, not wanting to play with parents or siblings, having difficulty articulating and displaying mood swings from calm to violent temper tantrum in an instant.
“A child showing any of these signs needs to be tested,” said Scherbinski, “to determine if he or she has specific developmental delays, autism or Asperger’s disorder, which is similar to autism. It’s important for parents to act quickly in order to begin learning to cope with the autistic child and find out the best way to augment their development.
“What happens normally when parents begin to feel that something is not exactly right with their child, they first see their general practitioner who refers them to ear, nose, throat and speech specialists,” Scherbinski said. “After eliminating the areas not affected, the process gradually narrows down to contacting someone like me to conduct psychological testing.”
Scherbinski first meets with parents to learn the child’s background (when he or she started walking, talking, and potty training), to find out if the child can sit in a chair at school and what kind of behavior has been observed. “Most parents think their child will be the next president of the United States, so are generally slow to acknowledge that something is severely wrong and to come to the realization that testing is imperative.”
Next Scherbinski meets one-on-one with the child and attempts to engage him or her in play. “I ask them to tell me a story and see what they would do in certain situations. Autistic children generally have trouble seeing things outside themselves. I attempt to get them to transition from one task to another to determine whether or not they have processing deficits. I’ll also learn if they will respond to a request or just choose not to answer. We’ll try to carry on a conversation to ascertain if they can focus on a specific topic.”
A child goes through a battery of four to six tests after which Scherbinski puts together a detailed report on his findings and makes recommendations to parents of things they can do to help meet the child’s developmental needs. He has evening and weekend hours because he says it is imperative that the child not miss the socialization aspect of school.
“I prefer to focus on the child’s strengths rather than their limitations because that is not only counter-productive, but can cause the child to become discouraged and withdraw even further.
“Here’s where parents need to start thinking outside the box,” Scherbinski said. “They need to make learning more fun by utilizing books on tape and specialized software on the Internet. Special classrooms with a small student/teacher ratio are suggested. If a child is artistic, they need to encourage that aptitude, or get them involved in crafts, sports or other group activities that will help build social skills. Autism, however, is a lifelong affliction. Through careful attention and continued testing, an individual can show progress, function at a higher level and narrow the gap between themselves and the ‘norm’.”
Awareness of autism is becoming more common through media attention and earlier diagnosis. In addition, more coping resources are available to assist in alleviating the inherent stresses. “Unfortunately,” says Scherbinski, “when the economy is down like it is now, psychological testing is one of the first things that is let slide or cut out completely.”
In addition to working with a variety of developmental problems in young people, Scherbinski does evaluations for employment, adoption application assessments and evaluations for awarding custody of children and divorce. He also does individual, couples and group therapy.
The Michigan native teaches abnormal psychology at Indiana University Purdue University at Fort Wayne. Scherbinski did undergraduate work at Michigan State University, completed his Ph.D. in clinical psychology in California and his pre-doctoral training at Park Center here. Prometheus
Psychological Services
Michael Scherbinski, Ph.D., HSPP
Clinical Psychologist
6223 Constitution Dr. • 260.409.8188
www.prometheuspsych.com
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