Educating Students About Parenting

What's New, Mar/Apr 2002

Forty percent of adolescent females become pregnant before the age of 20. (Source: Center for Disease Control)

In 1999, an estimated 1,401 children died as a result of child abuse and neglect; nearly four children every day. (Source: National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect)

The Baby Think It Over® Program is a complete educational program that lets teens experience the emotional, social, and financial demands of parenting. The three-part program includes the RealCare® Baby infant simulator and an easy-to-use parenting education curriculum with equipment such as car seats and carriers. RealCare® Baby, when used as a part of the Baby Think It Over® Program is an educational experience with far greater impact than can be achieved through lecture or reading alone.

RealCare® Baby requires its caregiver to actually feed, burp, diaper, and rock Baby throughout the parenting simulation. Baby burps, coos, and makes many of the demands on a parent that a real infant makes - around the clock. And sometimes, like real infants, Baby cries just because it's fussy. Baby's electronics record all care and give a detailed report through the control unit at the end of the simulation.

The comprehensive curriculum addresses a variety of components of infant care, including infant health and lifestyle changes. The parenting education curriculum gives instructors easy-to-use lesson plans and activities designed to help teens understand the full impact of having an infant. The curriculum format is simple and easy to implement. Each section has its own purpose, objectives, time estimate, materials needed, factual information, and activity sections.

In addition to RealCare® Baby, BTIO Educational Products, Inc. also offers a complete family of educational tools for use in Parenting Education, Shaken Baby Syndrome Awareness, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Awareness, Drug and Alcohol Education and Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs.

As part of your school or community health education program, the Baby Think It Over® Program delivers something that is critical to effective parenting education: a realistic simulation of caring for an infant.