One Small Life. One Rash Moment.
No Second Chances.
Shaken Baby Syndrome Awareness Week is April 15-21

Help end Shaken Baby Syndrome with this powerful new simulator. You could help save lives by increasing awareness of this all-too-common form of child abuse with the Shaken Baby Syndrome Simulator from Realityworks.

Shaking the life-sized infant simulator is disturbing. Watching the fragile infant brain become damaged through the LED light display is powerful. Hearing the piercing cries abruptly stop is devastating. The accompanying curriculum presents documented information about Shaken Baby Syndrome, offers ways to cope with frustration, and helps caregivers put a plan in place to deal with the stress of a baby who cries for an extended period of time. An experience with the Shaken Baby Syndrome Simulator will stick with participants for a lifetime and reduce the likelihood that they will shake a baby in their care.

Shaken Baby Syndrome is an underreported crime, because unlike our simulator, you can’t see inside a real baby’s brain. Perpetrators often lie about the cause of the baby's injury. Most of the time they aren’t irresponsible people, but overtired, frustrated parents or caregivers who react violently when they can no longer deal with an infant’s inconsolable crying.

The SBS Simulator is designed for parenting and babysitter education, child care worker training, public health and community awareness, and any other setting where proper infant care and coping skills are shared. The package includes the simulator, instructor guide, overhead presentation, supplementary handouts and a wealth of the latest resource information from Shaken Baby Syndrome awareness experts.

Do your part to make the world safer for babies. For more information, contact your product consultant at 800.830.1416 or 715.830.2040, or visit the Shaken Baby Syndrome Simulator web page.

What about B.O.B.?
Naming Your RealCare® Baby

Last month we printed the most common nicknames for RealCare® Baby. Thanks to reader mail we can add Reality Babies, Plastic Babies (they are made of vinyl, to be exact), Real-Deal Baby and Screamer Baby to our list. Everyone does know our simulators contain actual screaming, er, crying audio from actual infants, right? We don’t make this stuff up!

More from customers...
“Because we are a dropout prevention program within a school system, we call them the ‘dropout babies.’”

“In our school we call him “B.O.B.” (battery-operated baby). This was coined by one of my students who took the class because he was about to become a father. We also have some older models called “R.O.B.” (regular old baby).”

Mishandling Incident Leads to Child Abuse Lesson with Help of Criminal Justice Class

“Last semester I had a student who hit one of the babies in the head. She told me, ‘I wanted to hear the baby cry.’

“As a class we discussed the consequences of this action with a real child. We decided to have court held by a criminal justice class. During the mock trial, the jury sentenced her to:

1. Write a six-page report about child abuse.
2. The student’s mother had to come talk to the teacher.
3. The class had to view a video on child abuse and discuss it.

“We had a good discussion as to why we needed to treat the Realityworks Babies as if they were real. Yesterday I had a student leave the baby at home while she came to class. I plan to hold another court for her."

“Most of my students take it very seriously. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to ‘practice’ before the human babies are born.”

-- Bonnie Coffin, Austin High School, El Paso, Texas.

Enter and Win

We print your story and you get a chance to win free product totaling more than $700! Hmmm. That’s about $7 per word. Makes it worth hammering on the keyboard for a few spare minutes, doesn’t it? Winners will be chosen by random drawing at the end of the year.

Evidence that One Person can Make a Difference

Marlene Bryenton is a member of the Lake of Shining Waters IODE, a Canadian community service organization dedicated to helping children and families in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. She took the initiative to place infant simulators in her community schools (and the teachers were thrilled by the organization’s generosity.)

Why did she do it? In her job as an employment officer she saw many young single mothers struggling after having babies much too early. She felt strongly about educating young people about creating a good life for themselves first, and then bringing babies into the world under better circumstances. The original Baby Think It Over® Program (now known as the RealCare® Parenting Program) struck her as the way to do that. The IODE has since provided Babies to schools all over the island.

Marlene spearheaded the purchase and distributed more than 54 Babies from her own home until the IODE found office space for them. In 2006, she was honored with the national Therèse Casgrain Award for volunteerism. She says it was in large part because of her advocacy of the RealCare® Parenting Program. Marlene is involved in many other important service projects in her community and we applaud her generous spirit. We’re so proud to know such a caring individual that we gave her our own RealCare® Award, and donated more products to the IODE’s program.

“Teachers, parents and students sing the praises of Baby Think It Over,” says Marlene. “I can only imagine how many young teens have had a chance to ‘think it over’ rather than have to deal with a pregnancy. A most sincere thank you for a five-star educational tool!”

If you’re looking for an organization to sponsor your Baby program, we can help you communicate that need—request a copy of the Realityworks Change the World DVD today—and share it with a caring service organization in your community. Marlene is on the video! And if you know someone who makes a remarkable difference in people’s lives using our products, you can nominate them for a RealCare® Award by talking to your product consultant today.

They’re Super-Charged in Iowa!
Agency finds resourceful way to transport shared
resources, too.

Click picture for a larger view

This photo was taken at the Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency in Pocahontas, Iowa. The agency serves nine counties and 170 school buildings with teaching materials like books, CDs and infant simulators. The staff maintains a “fleet” of nearly 70 infant simulators and checks them out to teachers through a reservation and delivery system. Notice how a whole bunch of Babies only use a few outlets with the help of multi-port charging stations. (The orange disc-like objects in the photo allow five Babies to be charged from one outlet.)

According to Harriet Adams, supervisor of the Lending Library and Delivery, the agency recently participated in the trade-in program and also purchased upgrade kits for older model Babies so they’d have the latest technology and rechargeability of RealCare Baby II-plus. “We made a strong commitment to keeping those babies current,” says Adams, whose staff inspects and cleans the simulators when they come in and occasionally takes the clothing home to be washed.

She and a colleague purchased suitcases on wheels and lined them with foam inserts to conveniently package their own “kits” for instructors... simulators, documentation and accessories that go from school to school in groups of two, three or six Babies. “Our most popular option is the six-pack,” says Harriet. “And we purposely assemble them with a variety of genders and ethnicities for diversity.”

We’re Here For You
Product Support with a Smile

Unlike some companies, you can call the Realityworks product support line and get a real live person to help you with your product concerns. And even though you can’t see them through the phone, they really are smiling. They can talk you through just about any issue that’s keeping you from getting things accomplished (unless your issue is that pile of laundry or the ”check engine” light in your vehicle).

In addition to the one-on-one help, we share their product support tips every month right here by the clover (because we’re lucky to have such great product support technicians, of course).

Product support hours are Monday through Thursday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Fridays 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Standard Time. Call 1.800.830.1416 or 1.715.830.2040.

Product Support Tip o’ the Month

Shhhh! It’s Quiet Time.

A convenient feature of our infant simulator is the ability to program breaks during the parenting simulation. Three optional quiet times are available and must be pre-set prior to the start of the simulation. Baby will not request care during those specific times. Instructors often use quiet times for athletic events, religious services or classes during the school day where Baby is an unwelcome interruption. Some potential problems with quiet times?

• Make sure that the quiet time was set correctly. Example: verify the correct a.m. or p.m. is used.
• Baby will cry DURING a quiet time for any mishandling events: head support failure, rough handling, Shaken Baby, or wrong position.

• Unfortunately, if you forgot to set up a quiet time, you would have to end the current simulation and then reprogram Baby with the correct quiet times.

Believe us, we’ll let you know when it’s not important.

*Star Trivia Question

Short Stuff

If you want to know more, get adventurous and click on a link to see what gives.

Want a catalog?

Want to watch the new DVD with testimonials from around the world?

Want to Upgrade your Control Center software for FREE?

Want proof of the effectiveness of infant simulators?

Want leftover pizza?

Want to share your story and enter the contest?

Want to add your name to the list for research opportunities? We’ll contact you when we coordinate future studies.

Want to know more about RealCare Baby?

Want to see our other products?

Want us to stop? Okay.

Thanks for checking in with us. See you next month!

Who Else Believes in our Products and Programs Besides You?

At Realityworks, we believe in the power of our products to provide scientifically accurate, realistic and high-impact experiences. We also believe in our customers who use those products to provide true-to-life lessons and make a difference in people’s lives.

What do you believe in?

We are impressed by the many instructional applications of our products through varied organizations, institutions and government offices around the world. We’re proud that our Baby is the common denominator in your important work.

Infant simulators are used for teaching infant care skills, pregnancy prevention education, instilling responsibility and character-building, preparing people for immediate or future parenthood, babysitter training, child care worker evaluation, foster care placement and even rehabilitation for prisoners. Some businesses and charitable groups donate products to their local schools, after-school programs or other community programs for youth. If you need help bolstering your programs, you might try a community appeal.

No matter what you’re passionate about, you can useinfant simulators and our other hands-on products to address real-life issues, and to help people make good decisions and build vital skills. Our curricula and our devices are science-based and our materials and simulators focus on the realities of infant behavior and infant care that can bring your lessons to life.

Your commitment to making the world a better, healthier place for babies and families—no matter how you approach it—is what keeps us motivated. Keep doing that thing you do!

We’re your biggest fans.