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Learning life's skills
Nov 20, 2009 (The Fresno Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Taylor Champion attends special day classes at Fresno High School for students with special needs and lives at a girls' group home in west-central Fresno.
The Wyatt Community Care Inc. home is designed to help girls with mental disabilities learn living skills, such as washing clothes, cooking, grooming and making decisions, so they can live independently by age 18, or with a mentor.
Taylor, 15, says she has learned a lot since she moved into the home more than two years ago, including to show respect to others and to keep her room tidy.
"The best thing about this place is having a home and someone to help me," she says. "When I came here I didn't know a lot of things, and now I know them."
Taylor's wish is to help all the girls at the group home.
The three-bedroom residential home doesn't have a computer, something Taylor says she and the three other girls living at the home could use to do their homework and to keep up with current events.
"A computer here would be helpful," Taylor says. "We could see what goes on in the world."
Taylor, who also has a strong interest in scrapbooking and baking desserts such as chocolate cake, chocolate-chip cookies and pumpkin pie, says a computer could help her find recipes for her own cookbook.
The girls are supervised by the home's administrator, Debra Stephens, who says it is important the girls learn independent living skills in ways that are common to youth. Stephens uses the computer in her office for business only.
"It would be a very good tool in a group home," she says. "Kids are looking for jobs and filing applications. You can do so much of it online now."
On a recent day, Taylor and the other girls -- Elizabeth Fulkerson, 18, Robin Lira, 17, and Dorothy Lindsey, 16 -- worked on their homework for classes in reading, basic math and environmental science.
"A lot of times, the girls have questions about their homework," Stephens says. "Now, I could say, 'Let's go to the computer and find out.' "
Elizabeth says she isn't surprised by Taylor's thoughtfulness.
"She's very nice; she's like a sister to me," Elizabeth says. "She's always been here for me and others."
The reporter can be reached at rorozco@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6304.
To see more of The Fresno Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.fresnobee.com Copyright (c) 2009, The Fresno Bee, Calif. Distributed
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