Education and demonstration – Anatomy – physiology – therapeutic treatment – or surgery... – Anatomical representation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-07
2001-05-29
Muir, D. Neal (Department: 3712)
Education and demonstration
Anatomy, physiology, therapeutic treatment, or surgery...
Anatomical representation
C446S391000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06238215
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention broadly relates to the field of simulated child care. More specifically, the invention relates to infant simulators used in educational programs for educating prospective parents about the realities of parenthood, assisting in the education and training of personnel entering the child-care profession, and assisting in the continuing education of persons working in the child-care profession.
BACKGROUND
Teen-age pregnancy is an ever increasing problem. Teen-age parents, surveyed as to why they elected to have a baby, gave such reasons as “babies are so cute,” “I wanted attention,” “I needed someone to love and love me back.” Such romantic feelings toward having a baby almost never include an understanding of the responsibilities imposed by a baby, including loss of sleep, loss of freedom, the need for constant attention, etc. Attempts to educate teen-agers about the trials and tribulations of caring for an infant and raising a child using the traditional educational methods of lecture and readings are rarely successful.
Some resourceful educators, realizing that traditional educational methods are not working, have attempted to demonstrate the care requirements of an infant by requiring students to carry a sack of flour, an egg or a plant throughout an assignment for a period of one to several days. While somewhat exemplary of the care requirements of an infant, such programs do not fairly represent the care requirements of an actual infant and have proven to be of limited success.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,948 issued to Burks and U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,644 issued to Kelley describe dolls that will wet a diaper after being fed from a bottle. Such dolls are not useful for educating students about the trials and tribulations of caring for an infant as the feeding and wetting cycle is under control of the user. The student, unless under constant supervision by an educator, can feed and change the doll on a schedule selected by the student.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,338 issued to Wexler disclosed a doll which emits a crying sound when a manually operated switch is actuated. The user must then determine which of several actions (e.g., feeding, diaper changing or back patting) will turn off the crying sound. While interesting as a plaything, this doll suffers from the same drawback as the “feed and wet” dolls in that activation of the crying actuation switch is under control of the user. The student, unless under constant supervision by an educator, can activate the switch and change the doll on a schedule selected by the student.
A particularly useful infant simulator system for use in educating students about the care requirements of an infant is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,388 issued to Jurmain et al. and assigned to the assignee of this application. The infant simulator includes such useful features as periodically crying throughout an assignment period on a schedule which is unknown to the student, with the student required to take appropriate responsive action.
It is well known and understood by those who have cared for an infant that it is absolutely necessary to continuously support the head of the infant whenever the infant is held. Infants are simply incapable of supporting their own head in an upright position for several months after birth. Failure to support the head when handling an infant can result in serious injury should the head flop backward.
A number of dolls have been designed with floppy necks, including the psychotherapy doll disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,494 issued to Woods and the training doll disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,351 issued to Gonzalez. However, neither of these dolls provide a realistic bending of the neck, (e.g., the neck of the doll disclosed in Gonzalez is simply pinched by a sew line to permit flopping of the head), nor do they include instrumentation to monitor and record undesirable flopping of the head.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need for an improved infant simulator suitable for use in educational programs for educating prospective parents about the realities of parenthood, assisting in the education and training of personnel entering the child-care profession, and assisting in the continuing education of persons working in the child-care profession that realistically demonstrates the head support required by infants and includes a monitoring means for allowing an educator or other instructor to ascertain whether the head has been properly supported by the student throughout an assignment period.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The infant simulator of the present invention is a doll equipped with a realistically floppy neck and a means for sensing and recording or reporting instances in which the head has not been properly supported during handling and allowed to flop into an unacceptable position.
In a first embodiment, the doll includes a head floppily connected to a torso and is equipped with (i) a head-position sensing unit for sensing the flopped position of the head relative to the torso as between an acceptable position(s) and an unacceptable position(s), and (ii) a data recording unit in communication with the head-position sensing unit for recording a sensed positioning of the head in an unacceptable position. This embodiment is effective for sensing instances in which the head has been allowed to flop into an unacceptable position and recording such instances for subsequent review by a program supervisor.
In a second embodiment, the doll includes a head floppily connected to a torso and is equipped with (i) a head-position sensing unit for sensing the flopped position of the head relative to the torso as between an acceptable position(s) and an unacceptable position(s), and (ii) a signal generating unit in communication with the head-position sensing unit for generating a perceptible distress signal when the head is sensed in an unacceptable position. This embodiment is effective for sensing instances in which the head has been allowed to flop into an unacceptable position and signaling the student (e.g., a scream, a loud cry, a red light, etc.) that the head has flopped into an unacceptable position due to a lack of head support during handling.
The doll may optionally be equipped with both a data recording unit and a signal generating unit in combination with the head-position sensing unit.
A specific embodiment of a floppy neck assembly capable of providing realistic movement of the head relative to the torso, includes (i) a curved neck tube having a first end engaged by a first receiving collar within an opening in the torso and a second end engaged by a second receiving collar within an opening in the head, wherein the neck tube is slidably engaged within at least one of the first and second receiving collars, and (ii) a guiding mechanism for restricting movement of the head relative to the torso between a first position wherein the head is aligned with the torso, and a second position wherein the head is tilted back relative to the torso. The floppy neck assembly is configured and arranged so that the head is gravitationally biased toward the first position (i.e., aligned with the torso) when the torso is in a generally vertical position and gravitationally biased toward the second position (i.e., tilted back relative to the torso) as the torso approaches a generally horizontal position.
The invention further includes a method of training a person to properly support the head of a young infant by assigning the infant simulator of the present invention to the person for an assignment period. When the infant simulator includes a data recording unit, the method can further include a review of the data recorded by the infant simulator during the assignment period and a discussion of such data with the person.
REFERENCES:
patent: Re. 36776 (2000-07-01), Jurmain et al.
patent: 3303605 (1967-02-01), Henry
patent: 3319376 (1967-05-01), Doppelt et al.
patent: 3685200 (1972-08-01), Noll
patent: 3740871 (1973-06-01), Berton et al.
patent: 3866350 (1975-02-01), Goldfarb et al.
patent: 3918199 (1975
Fusi John C.
Jurmain Mary M.
BTIO Educational Products, Inc.
Muir D. Neal
Sherrill Michael S.
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