“I had been teaching in Mobile for two years … teaching special needs and hearing impaired children,” said Murphy. “I felt the need to go back to Maryland, and some parents approached us and asked us to stay. Well, that wasn’t really in the cards for us, so we compromised and we became legal guardians of these children and then moved back to Maryland.”
Murphy would be able to continue to work with her two boys.
“One of the boys was hearing impaired and deaf, and was able to go to the school for the deaf. It was good, they could communicate with him, but they didn’t know anything at all about autism,” said Murphy. “The other little boy was not hearing impaired, but had a central processing problem that required sign language.”
While the school helped him cope with his physical problems that accompanied his central processing, Murphy said that the school could not communicate with him effectively.
“When he would come home at night, we would have to re-teach his lessons,” said Murphy. “Nothing fit exactly for us. So, I quit my job and started home schooling the boys and somewhere along the line we just said we can do this better ourselves. Necessity is the mother of invention, so we started The Learning Tree.
“The Learning Tree is a residential educational facility. We deal with children with developmental disabilities who have significant behavioral problems. We are private and non-profit, and we run our program year round. The educational component is licensed thought the state Department of Education. We meet all the same regulations that public schools do. Our residential component is licensed though the Alabama Department of Mental Health.”
The Learning Tree started as a four-student, two-teacher program. Now, after opening a campus in Jacksonville in 1991 and a new campus in Tallassee that opened in 2005, The Learning Tree serves over 82 children residentially.
“Over the years, we also discovered a need for pre-school services,” said Murphy.
To handle the needs of children from two-and-a-half to five, including those with developmental disabilities. The Little Tree preschool program was started. After opening its first preschool in Auburn in 2005, Little Tree quickly saw the demand for other sites around the state. In fall 2007, in collaboration with Mobile County Public Schools, a second Little Tree Preschool was opened. Then in fall 2008, the third Little Tree Preschool opened in Jacksonville.
“Just this past year, in Mobile, we opened a new program called Woody’s Song,” said Murphy. “That is for children with autism that are not fitting into the public school system.
“Our goal is to provide the children the tools and the skills necessary to achieve a quality of life that their non-disabled peers enjoy. We want them to be able to be a part of their families and their communities.”
According to Murphy, funding for The Learning Tree comes from state departments, private sources, and from fundraising. In March, The Learning Tree will hold a cow patty contest, and in the future, they plan on doing a 1,000-mile bike ride.
For more information on The Learning Tree, any of its other projects, or its fundraisers, visit www.learning-tree.org.
“We try to provide what is needed, so that the kids become successful,” said Murphy. “There are not a lot of options or alternatives for special needs children out there, so we try to take them in, fix their behavioral problems, and then put them back in their communities.”
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