NJAIMH: Some History
Jean Mercer
Early in the 1990s I received a mailing from the then just-hatching New Jersey Association for Infant Mental Health. It included a newsletter called The Phoenix--- typed and Xeroxed on yellow paper in the manner of those pre-laser-printer days. Among the people whose names were mentioned in that issue of The Phoenix were the eminent Thea Bry, Gerry Costa, Susan Adubato, Barbara Menzel, Elaine Herzog and (I think) Nancy Murphy. I had had the good fortune to miss all the work of incorporation and by-law writing that had already been done by Thea, Gerry, and the others. I wrote (not e-mailed!) to that group, offering to get involved with the newsletter, and soon there was an arrangement made to have an informational meeting at Richard Stockton College. A large number of people attended that meeting, but as so often happens, very few memberships resulted. (The handwriting was on the wall-- NJAIMH was to remain a north Jersey outfit, at least from the point of view of those of us who live in the south.)
In 1993 I was invited to my first board meeting. Susan Adubato was president at that time, Thea Bry was still very much alive, and of course Gerry Costa brought in not only his own expertise but also the connection with Youth Consultation Services that has been so important to NJAIMH. Soon afterward, the group carried off a large and successful conference at St. Peter’s, featuring Michael Trout, Gordon Williamson, and other stellar presenters. By that time the membership was over 100 and there was money in the treasury, being handled with perfect and timely accuracy by Nancy Murphy, as it would be for quite a few more years.
With the help of Elaine Herzog, NJAIMH board meetings were held for quite a while at the offices of the CARRI program in Piscataway. With Barbara Menzel, and later Gerry Costa, as president, the group held a number of large and small conferences. The famous (and expensive) Charles Zeanah was the major presenter at one of these, which was most instructive and valuable to those who attended, but a financial disaster as it was scheduled in the wake of 9/11 and drew very few paying customers. During this period, smaller meetings with presentations from NJAIMH members also took place; a notable one involved discussion by Isabel Poiret, Vivian Shapiro, and Janet Shapiro of their valuable book on the aftermaths of assisted reproductive technologies and of complex adoption. With the help of Elaine and others with lots of “connections”, NJAIMH during this period also earned money by presenting trainings at various hospitals and agencies. At about this time, some brilliant person (still unidentified, except to herself) suggested the best possible name for our newsletter : Nurture Notes.
One meeting took place on the day after the contested presidential election of 2000, and we all came in looking puzzled and wondering what the next years would hold. Of course, what they did hold was the same for most non-profit organizations: less money, less support from agencies for training, and consequently less membership. I was president for five years of this period, but finally caught Deborah Cherniss in a weak moment; she took the office, but unfortunately her health did not permit a long tenure.
The current NJAIMH president, Judith Wides, has presided over a period of strong interest in legal issues related to infant mental health, such as adoption and child custody decisions. One small and one large conference have been dedicated to this information. With the help of YCS and the Gateway Maternal-Child Health Consortium, the well-attended second conference, in March 2010, brought in Judge Cindy Lederman from Florida as the keynote speaker.
What will be the next events in NJAIMH history? Like infant development, what happens in NJAIMH is a matter of interaction between heredity (members’ interests) and environment (the economy and public perception of the importance of infancy). But however helpful that analogy may be, we don’t know what developmental stage we’re in. Is NJAIMH just starting to toddle, or are we adolescents? Whatever the answer may be, like all development, this will be interesting to be part of!
Profile of Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey
Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey is a private, nonprofit organization leading efforts across the state to end child abuse. For more than 30 years, the organization has been dedicated to eliminating child abuse and neglect, in all its forms, for all of New Jersey’s children.
Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey works to ensure that all children are safe, healthy, nurtured and
encouraged to learn. The organization accomplishes this by developing, training, coordinating, and in many cases, evaluating, a vast network of programs delivered through partnerships with community-based organizations. These programs are developed from evidenced-based models. Many years of research and practice have demonstrated that these models are effective in their various techniques to not only prevent child maltreatment, but also promote healthy childhood outcomes.
Each year, Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey reaches the families of more than 25,000 children through:
• home visitation programs that ensure babies are healthy and nurtured right from the start,
• education that teaches parents how children develop and grow while offering positive, healthy ways to discipline,
• professional training and community education that builds the skills and knowledge of those who influence the lives of children,
• helping parents get engaged in their child’s education so that families and schools work together to ensure children realize their full academic potential,
• community awareness events that build the promise of prevention,
• and targeted support for children in highly vulnerable families – including those headed by adolescent and incarcerated parents.
Within these programs across the state, Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey is helping local neighborhoods meet the specific needs of their parents and children, especially those who are vulnerable or already in crisis.
The organization’s approach to building prevention initiatives is to work in local neighborhoods, engaging families where they typically gather, and offering services in places where families are comfortable receiving support. These include hospitals, health care providers, schools, faith-based organizations, community centers, child care centers, libraries and their homes and apartments. By working with the people in the community who influence and interact with families and their children, Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey builds relationships based on familiarity and trust. This approach allows programs to be responsive to the widely diverse cultural experiences and critical needs of New Jersey’s families while effectively preventing child abuse and promoting healthy childhoods.
To learn more about Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey and get involved in our work for children, visit www.preventchildabusenj.org or call 1.800.CHILDREN. You can stay updated on our work, listen to our podcasts, join our Facebook cause, subscribe to our e-newsletter, make a donation to help prevent child abuse, and download information for the families in your life.
Programs available in Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, Morris, Sussex, Union and Warren Counties
Access to Care
• Provides prevention, education, support and clinical services to women and their partners
• Aims to lower rates of prematurity, infant mortality, low birth weight and improve rates of early entry into prenatal care
• The communications plan will include utilization of social media to reach our target audience (texting, Twitter and Facebook)
• Contact information: Jeannette Burgos (973) 268.2280 x 109
Baby Basics – Health Literacy for Prenatal Immigrant Women
• Provides pregnant foreign-born women with the Baby Basics (Ola Bebe) books and planners to improve their health literacy skills
• Facilitates Moms Clubs at community-based organizations
• One-on-one instruction provided at prenatal care clinics
• Contact information: Delia Marques (973) 268.2280 x 103
Breastfeeding
• Lactation consulting services are provide to all women who participate in Essex County WIC programs
• Peer outreach and education to promote breastfeeding
• Phone support for breastfeeding WIC moms 7 days a week
• Provide breastfeeding aids to all breastfeeding WIC moms in Essex County
• Contact information: Mackieba Reyes (973) 268.2280 x 106
EPA Renovation, Repair & Painting (RRP) Class/Leadie Eddie Interactive Education Program
• RRP is an accredited EPA training program that certifies individuals as Certified Renovators. Classes are usually given on Tuesday and Fridays and are available in both English and Spanish.
• Leadie Eddie, an original Gateway program, educates children, parents, and professionals about the dangers and sources of lead poisoning, CDC’s number one environmental threat to children
• Leadie Eddie performs puppet shows for preschool and elementary school-aged children
• Contact information: Delia Marques, (973) 268-2280 x103
Essex Metro Immunization Coalition (EMIC)
• Coalition members include: health care providers; schools, state and local health department staff; and community-based organizations
• Provides outreach and education to promote on-time childhood and adolescent immunizations
• Advocates for state laws promoting childhood and adolescent immunization
• Publishes the New Jersey Vaccine Voice
• Contract information: Jane Sarwin (973) 268.2280 x 107
Fetal-Infant Mortality Review (FIMR)
• FIMR is a public health surveillance program that investigates factors associated with fetal and infant mortality using a community based approach
• Gateway’s FIMR program reviews cases of fetal death >20 weeks gestation and infant deaths up to one year of age
• FIMR supports a multidisciplinary Case Review Team (CRT) to examine fetal and infant deaths in an ongoing review process
• FIMR supports a community-based Community Action Team (CAT) to review the formalized recommendations and determine how best to implement community based interventions based on the CRT findings
• One of the most distinctive and valuable elements of FIMR is a home visit/maternal interview with bereaved families
• Public health activities that have been the direct result of FIMR are regional bereavement support, and bereavement training, preterm labor prevention, and kick count education for patients and providers.
• Contact information: Carly Worman Ryan, (973) 268.2280 x 115
Healthy Families
• Healthy Families is a research based, nationally accredited, Home Visitation Program designed to promote positive childhood outcomes and family functioning
• Gateway’s Healthy Families Program promotes healthy parent-child interaction, child development skills and health and safety practices with families, and provides linkages to community resources to improve family self-sufficiency
• Healthy Families-TIP provides free and voluntary services to prenatal families and families with new babies who are at low or moderate risk for child abuse or neglect.
• Healthy Families-TIP serves Morris County
• Contact information: Nicole Poland, (973) 268.2280 x 112
HIV FIMR
• A Newark-based HIV FIMR program that uses the same protocol as FIMR program
• Contact information: Carly Worman Ryan (973) 268.2280 x 110
New Jersey Immunization Registry Training/Recruiting
• The New Jersey Immunization Information System (Registry) is a Statewide automated electronic immunization registry
• NJIIS is the single repository of immunization records in New Jersey
• NJIIS coordinates and promotes effective cost-efficient disease screenings and control efforts throughout the State
• Gateway provides NJIIS training and support to health care providers or social service organizations who are authorized to access the Registry
• Effective 2011, registry participation will be mandatory for all health care providers that give immunizations to children under 7 years old
• Contact information: Joann Jablonski (973) 268-2280 x 105
Perinatal Addictions Prevention Project
• A Statewide initiative dedicated to reducing the number of infants exposed to substances in utero and improve maternal and birth outcomes
• Gateway’s Perinatal Addictions Prevention Project is dedicated to screening pregnant women in the prenatal clinics for substance use
• The Perinatal Addictions Prevention Project provides education to pregnant women, women of child bearing age, professional and the community at large regarding the risks associated with substance use during pregnancy
• Contact information: Anne Harrington (973) 268.2280 x 115
Postpartum Mood Disorders (PPMD)
• Provides a variety of classes for both professionals and laypeople on the risk factors and treatment options symptoms of PPMD
• Women seeking help are referred to support groups or providers
• Promotes awareness of PPMD to community and religious organizations
• Contact information: Naomi Savitz and Ruth Brogden, (973) 268.2280 x 106
Quality Assurance
• Electronic Birth Certificate (EBC) support and technical assistance to member hospitals
• Analyses data for program planning for maternal child health issues
• Conducts chart audits for the purpose of benchmarking indicators
• Provides zip code level EBC data to identify birth trends in service area
• Contact information: Naomi Savitz and Ruth Brogden (973) 268.2280 x 106
Building Healthy, Stronger Families
Central Jersey Agency Launches New Access to Care Initiative
Recently funded through a grant from the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, the Central New Jersey Maternal and Child Health Consortium, will launch a new campaign focusing on women’s health across the life span. Educational activities will highlight the importance of a healthy body, mind and environment before a woman becomes pregnant. “Access to care is about promoting healthy living and giving babies the best start in life”, states Regional Program Director, Betsy Coffin.
Components of the program include:
• Preconception (before becoming pregnant) and interconception (between pregnancies) education and training for healthcare providers, non-obstetrical providers, and the general community, with specific focus on colleges/universities, faith based organizations, businesses and corporations.
• Development of preconception and interconception care protocols to incorporate into existing systems of care.
• County based maternal and child health networks for working professionals, community agencies, healthcare providers, outreach workers, and consumers in the Central New Jersey region with a focus on improving access to care, and promoting the importance of preconception and interconception care.
• Patient Navigators to increase pregnant mom's access to care and ability to navigate the health care system. The Patient Navigators are trained, culturally sensitive health care workers who will provide support and guidance throughout the continuum of pregnancy from the prenatal period to the postnatal period.
The Central New Jersey Access to Care program is a collaborative effort between the Consortium and key maternal and child health providers in Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex and Somerset Counties.
About CNJMCHC
The Central New Jersey Maternal and Child health Consortium, Inc. (CNJMCHC) works to improve the health of women of childbearing age, infants, and children in the region through the collaborative efforts of member hospitals, providers, and consumers. Major activities include professional and consumer education, coordination of services, regional planning, and total quality improvement.
The Consortium is recognized statewide for providing quality education and training for maternal and child health professionals. Current educational programs include:
• Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) fetal monitoring courses
• Lectures on various Maternal Child Health topics such as: Breastfeeding, Child Abuse Recognition, Neonatal conditions, Perinatal Bereavement Series, Preconception Health, Pregnancy and Childbirth
• Self study modules-Child Abuse and\Neglect, Malignant Hyperthermia, and Post Partum Depression
• March of Dimes Nursing Modules
• Simulated Clinical Obstetric & Pediatric Evaluation (SCOPE) Program
Other Consortium community based programs that are aimed at improving overall infant health and wellbeing include:
• Prenatal Education Series, Comenzando Bien/Becoming a Mom - a bilingual prenatal education program developed for pregnant Latina women. The program works to increase understanding of the importance of receiving prenatal care from the beginning of pregnancy to delivery.
• Healthy Families and Parents as Teachers Home Visitation – evidenced based in-home prenatal and parenting education program serving Middlesex and Somerset Counties. The HF and PAT programs are free and voluntary services, offered to pregnant women and families with new babies, to promote healthy parent-child interaction, infant child development, health and safety practices, and provides linkages to community resources to improve family self-sufficiency.
• Middlesex/Somerset Central Home Visitation System- provides pregnant women and parents with early linkages to evidence-based home visitation services and other community-based programs. The Central Home Visitation System works to improve coordination among home visitation providers, develop uniform client data collection and analysis, and provide linkages to other supportive services in the region.
• Perinatal Mood Disorders and Post Partum Depression Education and Training - provides training and education related to perinatal mood disorders and postpartum depression to physicians, nurses, social workers, and other healthcare professionals. The Consortium also provides on-site programs and educational materials to central region hospitals, health centers, faith based organizations, Infants and Children (WIC) offices, women, Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) offices, and other agencies that provide care to women and children.
• Perinatal Addictions- Substance Use During Pregnancy Initiative – education is provided for professionals and consumers regarding substance use before, during, and after pregnancy. A regional Advisory Committee works to address and coordinate Perinatal Addictions services, and provides education throughout the central region of New Jersey.
• Regional Early Intervention Collaborative (Mid-Jersey CARES)- works with the statewide early intervention system to ensure that young children ages 0-3 with special needs are offered early intervention services that are high quality and provided in natural environments, where children and family members live, work and play.
• School-Based Oral Health Education Program- provides age-appropriate educational activities for school-age children, pregnant women, parents, and professionals. A variety of oral health teaching kits are available for loan to school nurses and educators. The teaching kits include colorful puppets that are used to instruct children in proper oral hygiene. Oral health education is also provided for parent groups, teen parents, school and public health nurses, educators, and other health professionals.
If you would like to get involved with the Access to Care program, or would like more information about CNJMCHC, please call (732)937-5437. Visit our website at www.cnjmchc.org.
Ensuing a legacy of health… one family at a time
THE COMMUNITY YMCA
YOUNG PEOPLE’S PROGRAM
The Young People’s Program provides counseling services to children ages 3 – 12 and their families. The program is tailored to meet the individual needs of the child and offers the opportunity for change through play and a child/family-centered approach. Through the use of directive and non-directive play therapy techniques, the therapist creates an atmosphere of acceptance, safety, and trust where children feel comfortable expressing their feelings. Parent and Family counseling services are also available.
The Young People’s Program offers assistance for many areas of concern including:
School Difficulties
Parent/Child Conflict
Trauma
Oppositional Behaviors
Grief and Loss
Adjustment to Life Changes (i.e. divorce, step-siblings, moving)
Medicaid and most other insurance are accepted. Sliding scale available
For additional information, please visit our website at CYMCA.org or contact:
Valerie Le Moing, MA, LPC
The Community YMCA
Family Services Branch
166 Main Street
Matawan, NJ 07747
732.290.9040 ext 128.
Postpartum Depression (PPD) Follow Up Program (Monmouth and Ocean Counties)
With grant funding from the NJDHSS, professional staff at RPCMOC outreach to all pregnant and postpartum women who have screened positive for PPD at birth hospitals or at other perinatal /pediatric health care settings in Monmouth or Ocean Counties.
Staff share Information with the mom and her family about PPD and assist with referrals to local and state PPD services and to area PPD support groups. Ongoing individual support is provided to assure that the mom has success in obtaining appropriate PPD services.
Regional Perinatal Consortium of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Inc. (www.rpcmoc.com) 732-363-5400
Themes and Variations in Development: Can Nanny-bots Act Like Human Caregivers?
Jean Mercer
Can “smart” robots do an effective job of child care? I believe this question actually means, “Is it possible for a human being reared largely under the care of nanny-bots to be the kind of adult we want to know and share our world with?” Sharkey and Sharkey, in their 2010 paper about robot nannies, made it clear that they were considering situations where a major part of the care of young children was done robotically, not simply situations where robots were elaborate monitoring devices. We have little empirical information to help answer the question of outcomes of nanny-bot care, but I will try to bring together some related material and speculate on an answer.
A serious problem for those who want to answer this question is that at this juncture we know a good deal more about how to build “smart” and even “smarter” robots than we do about the specific needs of a specific baby at a given time. We have much knowledge about babies in general and even about a given baby over time, but the general knowledge that a human being can use to generate appropriate care is most difficult to specify and to provide to a robot caregiver. No matter how “smart” a robot we can produce, its “smartness” is of little use unless it includes sufficient correct information about young children and appropriate strategies for solving problems when the right information is not available.
What happens if a caregiver does not understand a baby’s needs or do the right thing at the wrong time? For some aspects of child care, making a mistake at the beginning of an interaction does not really make a lot of difference, as long as the caregiver reads the child’s signals, realizes there is an error (“oh, she’s not hungry, because she’s still crying”), and tries some reasonable alternative until a solution is reached. In communication between adults and babies, it is very common to see “interactive mismatch and repair” of this kind. In fact, such errors and resolutions may be an important thing for a baby to learn about, so he or she understands that communication may take several steps and should not be given up at the first failure. An effective nanny-bot would need the ability to persist in efforts to solve problems; indeed, if it is true that the baby learns from communications that need repair, we might want a nanny-bot to make roughly the same number of errors that a human caregiver does.
So, are there aspects of child care when a quick, accurate, consistent response is important, and there are problems if it does not occur most of the time? To answer this question, we can draw on studies of perinatal mood disorders (for example, postpartum depression) and their effects on infant development. Non-depressed mothers and other caregivers respond quickly and accurately to infants’ communication through facial expression, posture, and gesture (including both movements of hands and head, and eye movements). Videotaping of the faces of non-depressed mothers and their babies shows that although the babies sometimes imitate the mothers, it is even more common for the mothers to imitate the babies. A baby’s very brief facial expression (say, a protruding lower lip) is echoed almost immediately by the mother’s equally quick facial imitation--an involuntary response by the mother. This mirroring of facial expression may help the baby map emotional experience onto facial changes and prepare to “read” the emotions of others on the basis of expression and gesture. However, depressed mothers often fail to notice their infants’ expressions of social interest and greeting, and continue to show a sad expression no matter what the baby does. These mothers fail to provide either an interesting contingency for the baby’s social approaches or a wide range of expressions indicating a wide range of emotions. Whether for these reasons or for other unknown reasons, babies of depressed mothers are slowed in their language development and frequently look sad under circumstances that would not be expected to sadden them. A nanny-bot that could not provide the apparently-necessary imitation of facial expressions might be predicted to produce less than optimal development of both language and regulation of mood. Whether or not it is technically possible to make a robot with a “face” that can change expression realistically, I have no idea, but this capacity would seem to be necessary for normal child development.
As we have seen, there are circumstances where making some errors in response to infants is acceptable and even desirable, and there are other circumstances where a rapid correct response seems to be needed a good deal of the time. (No human caregiver ever does things right all the time.) These facts bring us to an essential consideration in the study of child development: variability. Individual differences between children are very real from the time of birth, variation within a child occurs over time and within specific time frames, and the variability of the world is something children need to learn about. This means that children need different responses at different times and may require experience of variation for optimal development. For example, babies need to learn that sometimes other people respond quickly to a signal, sometimes slowly, and occasionally not at all, and that none of these is a cause for alarm. With respect to language learning, experience of variability is essential. An obvious example is the fact that sounds have different meanings in different contexts (“Bye-bye, I’m going by the store to buy some bi-naries.”). Less obvious is the fact that when babies learn the phonemes of their native language (the sounds which when changed alter the meaning of a word--these may be different sounds in different languages) they do not learn a single sound pattern for each phoneme, but all the sound patterns that fit into that phoneme’s category. These patterns are different when spoken by different people, in louder or softer voices, in conjunction with other sounds, or under the influence of different emotions. To provide appropriate levels of variability, a nanny-bot would need to behave differently on different occasions, and particularly to produce a wide variety of speech sounds.
Considering variability and language learning brings us back to the idea of variation over time. Human caregivers fine-tune their attempts to communicate with infants in ways that appeal to the baby’s developmental status. For example, mothers talking to newborns use very much the same vocabulary, grammar, and subject matter that they would use in talking to an adult, but use a much higher-pitched voice and a different rhythm of speech. They do not expect the baby to understand the words, but know that he or she will find a high-pitched voice interesting. The same mothers, when their babies are six months old, will use simpler words and grammar and will concentrate on talking about things the baby can see or hear; they know that the baby is beginning to get the connection between word-sounds and objects, and they pick upon the baby’s interest and follow it. Part of the mothers’ changing speech is related to a general idea about the baby’s age, but much of it has to do with noticing that the baby is attracted or interested by different things at different ages. An effective nanny-bot could not be programmed simply to produce sounds in a given way throughout the first year, but would need to respond to developmental change. Similarly, of course, even the “dirty” jobs need fine-tuning. Changing the diaper of a month-old baby is a different matter from changing a wiggly 8-month-old who wants to turn over when placed in the diapering position--although a robot with extra arms might do a more efficient job than a two-armed parent.
In Sharkey and Sharkey’s article, some concerns were expressed about the issue of emotional attachment in nanny-bot care. With respect to this topic, I would like to note first that attachment is not only difficult to define in general, but is operationalized in different ways when discussing human beings of different ages. The term “bonding” is rarely used by psychologists today, although one does come across it in judicial proceedings; when it was in more frequent use, perhaps 30 years ago, “bonding” referred to the attitudes of adults toward babies, not the emotional connection babies experience with respect to adults. “Bonding” has become a fairly useless term, as it is popularly used to describe virtually any level of cordiality. To speak of “bonding” in the sense of the Tanaka study--that the children liked the robots and had fun with them--is a choice of language that implies some connection with psychological research and theory but actually has none.
When we consider the potential impact of nanny-bot care on children’s emotional development, the issue of attachment is an essential one. Attachment theory, supported by an enormous amount of empirical and clinical investigation, suggests that early emotional development includes the growth of relationships with a small number of familiar caregivers who are ideally consistent, sensitive, and responsive to the baby’s communications and general needs. These caregivers initially “woo” or “court” the baby and demonstrate enjoyable social interactions; later, they let the baby initiate interactions more often. By about 8-12 months the baby shows strong preferences for the familiar people, especially if frightened or uncomfortable; he or she avoids strangers, and will usually explore new situations freely only if a familiar person is present. These behaviors are interpreted as demonstrating attachment. As the child grows older, attachment behaviors occur less often, but it is thought that attitudes toward the self and others are shaped by the child’s early experiences of secure or insecure relationships with familiar people. While attachment is far from the only factor determining personality development, it is thought to play an important role.
What then, would a robot caregiver have to do in order to foster the child’s attachment to the robot? As far as we can tell, active, interactive social play (not just “entertainment”) is a necessary beginning for attachment and is much more important than providing food or warmth. A nanny-bot would need to begin by “wooing” the child, keeping the social stimulation within boundaries indicated by the baby’s response, and would later need to modulate the social behavior into greater responsiveness to the developing infant’s social bids. In addition, the nanny-bot would need to be able to provide appropriate responses to a toddler’s fears of new objects or situations, as the child seeks information by looking for facial expressions indicating fear or pleasure at a sight (this information-seeking is called social referencing). Human caregivers help the child achieve proximity or direct contact when anxious, so we would expect that a nanny-bot too would need to be able to modulate contact in these ways that are thought to foster attachment.
Given that a robot caregiver could do these complex tasks, would it be possible for the child to become attached to the robot? Yes, I think it would be possible for basic attachment behavior to develop; toddlers show this in rudimentary form even to preferred blankets, teddies, and even familiar places. However, this experience of attachment would lack many of the aspects that we see in normal human attachment. Among these aspects are experience in triadic interaction, with several people interacting in different patterns , or interactions with other children, whose behavior is very interesting to babies. Because of these absent experiences, our question perhaps should be, “Can attachment to a nanny-bot become a good foundation from which personality can develop and on which appropriate social behavior can be based?” Any positive answer to this question would have to be extremely guarded, especially in light of what I said earlier about children of depressed mothers.
In conclusion, let me pose two questions that I think crystallize some of the real issues about child care robots. The first is simply this: What would a nanny-bot do if a toddler hit it? The early years are a period in which children learn about modulating or inhibiting aggression, and they learn this in the context of attachment relationships. Could a robot discriminate between an intentional and an accidental blow, as human beings do? And if it could, what instructions would it have about a response intended to stop this behavior? Would the “first law” of robotics mean that a robot could not punish a child for a behavior that would have been harmful if it had targeted another human being?
And my final question: What other tasks do potential human caregivers have that are so critical as to preclude child care? Why do we not create robots to do other human tasks and free human beings for the complex and challenging task of rearing children to be good members of our community?
References:
Sharkey, N., & Sharkey, A. (2010). The crying shame of robot nannies: An ethical appraisal. Interaction Studies, 11, 161-190.
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