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Realityworks Real Care Plus II
Electronic Infant Simulator Report

History of the Infant Simulator at Ephrata Area School District :
The electronic infant simulators have been in use in the EASD for around 20 years now.  Our original simulators were battery operated and were funded by private sources.  At that time they were used both in the high school and middle school as a reference point on the responsibilities associated with taking care of any infant.  Every eighth grade student had the opportunity to take a simulator home.  At the high school Caring For Children and Personal Perspectives originally took the simulator home but the last nine years only the Caring For Children classes have.  These older simulators, called Baby Think It Over, used keys in the back and students were so frustrated with the care routine they never seemed to get the point that babies are a big responsibility, only that this wasn’t a “real” baby.
Five years ago, there was some money available in the High School FCS budget to replace the older “keyed” babies with newer ones that now recorded diaper changes, burping, nurturing, neglect and rough handling in a computer print-out.  Caring For Children students had the opportunity to take the simulator home two nights or over the weekend and care for it just like a “real baby”.  The ID bracelet and Velcro diapers created similar frustrations to the old simulators.  When asked about neglects and abuse that showed up in their reports, students would respond with “it’s not a real baby!”
Last year, thanks due to funding from Partners for Healthier Tomorrows, all simulators, keyed and newer disk ID, were replaced with the RealCare Plus II infant simulators.
After some limited use second semester last year, we can already see the advantages of this new simulator.

Real Care Plus II Infant Simulators:
Gone are the frustrations of how to operate these simulators and now we can focus on the role they play in the curriculum.
Eighth Grade Program: With an overnight experience in the Middle School 8th grade program, students get a taste of the responsibilities of caring for a real infant.  They cry at all times of the night and for all reasons.  They need attention on a regular basis – you can’t just let them sit in a corner somewhere.  And on their return students see the written proof of their care giving skills.
These simulators are so much more than an education about responsibilities.  They are an eye-opening experience about what will happen if they become pregnant at their age and will show them they are not emotionally ready to handle having a child.  They have decisions to make to insure pregnancy does not occur and abstinence is promoted as the most viable solution.
Caring For Children: At the High School in Caring For Children, students can either take the infant home two nights in a row or over a weekend.  I send them home during the infant development unit and they have effectively de-romanticized the allure of an infant to this age group.  They all come back with frustrations about the time it took and the energy and how the community looked at or reacted to them when they saw a teen with an infant.  These simulators are so real in appearance; it isn’t until you get up close that you can determine it’s a doll!  Everyone must turn in an essay about their “experience” and all essays returned with statements that said it either brought home to them they were not ready to have a child at this age or reconfirmed their commitment not to get pregnant.  As one student, Carla said in another classroom: “It was a life altering experience…very eye-opening!” In class we discussed the only certain way to insure that pregnancy would not occur was abstinence. 
With a new teacher of Personal Perspectives in place, we are in discussion about reinstituting the use of the simulators in that curriculum particularly in the Teen Pregnancy unit.
At the High School no reference is made in any way to use of these simulators in order to “teach you how to care for an infant.”  This was never a focus for use of the simulators in the curriculum. 
I set the simulators on an easier setting so they don’t lose so much sleep.  I did have one student say to me that I didn’t want them to have children because the purpose, in their eyes, for this program was to show how hard it was and real babies aren’t this hard even though they had an easy setting on the simulator they took home.  I responded, “My goal is to not to stop you from having a baby.  I just hope it shows you not to have one right now!”