LIFE LESSONS

AVON PARK - Carol Snyder has held several jobs before working at the Roadhouse Grill setting up the tables. It took her some training to do it, even with her experience.

"My first job was at Luby's Cafeteria," she recalled. She also worked at Barnhill's Buffet and at an Arby's before helping with the tableware at her current spot.

She has a coach who helps her prepare for interviews, shows her how to dress for work, how to conduct herself and sometimes how some of the new gadgets work.

Other counselors then train the woman and others at her group home how to keep herself safe at home, how to clean up her room, and some other chores.

She's one of a few hundred people in Highlands County with a kind of developmental or mental disability. Whether they have Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, mental retardation or several other disorders, they are often referred to the Ridge Area Arc, Vision Adult Day Training and other organizations so that they can fit into the community.

Rabbits, Fish, Birds and Horses

The services are individualized, and could include anything from reading exercises on cue cards to math lessons, from reading illustrated books to even surfing the Internet.

Candice Ciesla, the director of Programs and Services, recalled one client who began to throw several tantrums until she was given an e-mail account to contact her mother in Lakeland.

"They e-mail each other daily, and her behaviors went away," Ciesla said.

A bright blue room greets their clients to the Arc's Education Center, where some of the disabled clients practice basic reading and mathematical skills. It's lined with games, puzzles and several fish tanks and animal cages.

Debbe Roberts, an adult basic education teacher at the Arc, shows client Raymond Jackson an illustrated story book and some cards with compound words. As Jackson read them, she explained on the side that her students need repetition and a lot of "hands on" learning to grasp the material.

They even do this for hurricane survival. Ciesla said they simulate the 20 square-foot spaces given at hurricane shelters and teach them how to track the storms. As with other concepts, Ciesla said it has to be visualized.

At the nearby Heartland Horses and Handicapped, Inc., they take that approach a bit further, allowing physically, developmentally and mentally disabled clients to ride for "horse therapy."

"It gives them an opportunity to be in control," said Jennifer Carnahan, a coordinator with Heartland Horses.

For the physically disabled, there's another benefit. She pointed towards one client riding without a saddle, explaining that when the horse walks, its body moves in a way that makes a rider's legs move in a natural walking motion.

"A horse is the closest thing to mimicking walking," she said.

Job Training

For the less severely disabled, trainers focus on survivability skills. Snyder was considered "highly functional" but she still needed some assistance, Ciesla said.

For those like Snyder, one of the major services of the Arc attempts to get people with disabilities into jobs, which for their clients is a major part of their independence.

Visions ADT founder and director Barbara Cook says her group trains 45 to 50 clients a year, each day. Depending on the disability, they work on speech therapy, behavioral modification, motor skills and other necessities.

"We have individuals that have to be tube-fed," Cook said. "It's all in what that individual wants to accomplish."

Toni Salvaggio, an employment coordinator at the Arc, said she tries to discover what her clients like to do and also assesses their capabilities in what she calls a "discovery." According to the activity binders held in the Arc's classroom in its retail store, the counselors note things - balloons, for example - that their clients react to in a positive or negative way, and with some other activities, the clients are matched up with possible jobs that they can do.

Some of her clients cannot easily express themselves, though, and she says she just has to see them "from the outside, looking in" to find out where they can work.

"My job is to go and try to find 'the fit,'" Salvaggio said. "Everybody has varying abilities."

Salvaggio also checks on the clients after they are hired to see how they and their bosses are coping with each other. Depending on the client, she said she visits from once or twice a month to every week.

This went into practice on a larger scale Wednesday during the Arc's participation in National Disability Mentoring Day spent Wednesday working with Rebecca Anders, who was using the employment services through Arc. She tried her hand hanging garments on clothes hangers for a display. As she worked, she said she enjoyed it.

Kathleen Trussell, Bealls' Store Manager at the Lakeshore Mall, said she previously hired an employee through the Arc's employment services for the store's stock room a few months ago.