Current Issues: September |
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The computerised doll cries for food, refuses to sleep in the wrong position and wakes up screaming in the middle of the night. Health officials believe that it may succeed in persuading teenage girls to avoid"pregnancies where conventional advice has failed. The infant simulator is being used for the first time at a secondary school in Tayside, which has Scotland's highest teenage pregnancy rate. All 26 pupils who volunteered to look after "Tobi" concluded that a baby was more demanding than they imagined, involved sleepless nights and constant commitment and had an adverse effect on their social life. The simulator asks for food at random intervals and can be programmed to produce easy, normal or difficult behaviour for a weekend. Sally Dryden, 14, who experienced Tobi in a difficult phase, said: "As soon as I laid him down he started to cry. When I'd fed him and quietened him down, we started to watch a video. But that was soon interrupted. Then, at 11pm, just as I was getting ready for bed, it was panic-stations again. I was up five times in the middle of the night. Tobi really put me off having kids." The computerised infant records how well "parents" deal with his behaviour, and Sally was given a B for parenting skills. David Low, 17, the only male pupil to volunteer, said: "All weekend I never slept a wink. I was scared that I wouldn't wake up if he started crying." He was awarded an A-plus. Morna McKinley, the health visitor who introduced the scheme at Blairgowrie High School, said the experience of looking after the doll had "more impact than words of advice could ever have". She said: "This is one way to make young people think twice about parenthood before they are ready." The £200 simulator, originally designed by a NASA scientist, was bought for Perth and Kinross NHS Trust by a local charity. |
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