Q. You are known across America and abroad, as a scholar, a writer, a researcher, a TV personality, a pediatrician, and an advocate for families - what role do you value most?

A. I think the advocacy role. I feel very strongly and lucky that I have been able to get recognition of this kind and I don't deserve it, obviously. I think when you get to a position like this you really have a duty to become an advocate for parents and children and have a chance to do that is really exciting. I have a new book coming out, with Stanley Greenspan a child psychiatrist and a very prominent thinker in Washington. He and I wrote a book called the Irreducible Needs of Children. It really gives times that you should spend with your children and how much time, and it takes into account the stresses on parents. It also tells you how long you should let your children watch TV, or play with video games. So it's really pinning things down so parents can feel more supported. That kind of advocacy is very exciting to me.

Q. What do you consider to be your greatest contribution to the field of pediatrics?

A. The Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. I think it changed the way people look at babies and gave us the window into the uterus to look at what the babies had been through by the time they are born. And it gives us a window into cross-cultural work. The main thing, and this is what started me on it, was that I think we can share the baby with the parents and give them some insight into not only what kind of a baby they have, but what role they will have with their baby.

Q. You have written a lot about the stresses and struggles of families today. You see isolation as a key element, what do you mean by that?

A. I think parents today feel very isolated in their job of parenting. They don't have their extended family around them for the most part any more and they are in communities they don't trust. They can't go next door to borrow sugar or get a baby sitter. And then mothers who are at home feel like they are the only mothers at home. They go to the park and it's all childcare or nursemaids, so all of that confirms their sense of isolation. And we know what to do about that: get peer groups together so mothers can talk to each other. So all of these stresses that I think parents are going through are really ones that we know what to do something about. So if there are stresses and we know what they are and what to do about them, then why aren't we doing them?

Q. Describe the ideal mother?

A. I don't have such a thought in my mind. I think every mother is passionate in doing the best she can by her child. The stresses on her make it more complicated, to not only learn about he child through the child's behavior, but to also pull out the ghosts from her own nursery and look at them and try to match the two, so there's more of a fit. So I think every mother is working very hard to do the best for her child, I think we should just be giving them more support.

Q. What to you think are the stresses children face today that they may not have faced in the past?

A. There is more stress today. I think everyone is stressed. The parents are stressed and they pass that on to the child. The child is under a lot more pressure to perform - to have after-school activities, to watch TV, to rent video games. It's a frantic life, and I think children lose out a lot in terms of play, in terms of fantasies, things like that. I think if we really reconsidered it, we ought to think about what a child is giving up under all the stresses, that we place them under. And of course I feel that we ought to be doing more in supporting families so they don't feel so stressed.

Q. What are your thoughts about the NBAS in the 21st century?

A. Well, I love what Kevin (Nugent) is doing in terms of trying to get a shorter NBAS (the CLNBAS), which can be used more efficiently and more quickly to share the baby's behavior with the mother. I feel, as he does, that we should be sure not to give up on all that we have learned from the full NBAS, because we have learned an enormous amount in the 25 years that we've had it published. We cannot give up on the insights on the newborn babies that the NBAS has given us. I think that to use the CLNBAS as a way to increasing communications is great, but I think the second you find any deviation or have a mother who is obviously under a lot more stress than we can expect her to handle, we ought to use something as comprehensive as the full NBAS, to carefully look that baby over. So, I also think that we certainly ought to standardize the NBAS, as we ought to with the CLNBAS, and make the distinction between the two for what they are. The NBAS is a research instrument. It's an instrument for really looking deeply into what the baby is like as a person, how hard they work to learn about their environments, while the CLNBAS is a way of communicating with parents, and saying "I want to be there with you", and that is terribly important, that is what it was originally designed for.

Q. Finally, I would like to congratulate you on your recent induction into the Library of Congress as a Living Legend for your contributions to American life. That is such an honor. How did it make you feel?

A. Did I tell you the story? When they called me to tell me they wanted to make me a Living Legend, I started laughing. When they asked me why I was laughing, I said, "Well being a Living Legend is a lot better than the alternative!