{{Short description|Juvenile exploratory play}} {{About|juvenile exploration|a game of imaginative role-playing|Make believe|erotic activity amongst adults|Sexual roleplay|and|Medical fetishism|the 2014 German film|Playing Doctor (film)}} "'''Playing doctor'''" is a phrase used colloquially in the Western world to refer to children examining each other's genitals or bodies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://life.familyeducation.com/sexuality/toddler/53839.html |title=Is Your Preschooler Playing Doctor? |access-date=4 September 2009 |work=FamilyEducation }} Excerpted from: {{cite book | first1 = Keith M. | last1 = Boyd | first2 = Kevin | last2 = Osborn | title = The Complete Idiot's Guide to Parenting a Preschooler and Toddler, Too | publisher = Penguin Group | location = USA | date = June 1997 | isbn = 978-0-02-861733-6 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/completeidiotsgu0000boyd }}</ref> It originates from children using the pretend roles of doctor and patient as a pretext for such an examination. However, whether or not such role-playing is involved, the phrase is used to refer to any similar examination.<ref>{{cite web |first=Lynn Blinn |last=Pike |title=Sexuality and Your Child: For Children Ages 3 to 7 |url=http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/hesguide/humanrel/gh6002.htm |publisher=University of Missouri Extension |date=January 2001 |access-date=4 September 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120720181038/http://extension.missouri.edu/publications/DisplayPub.aspx?P=GH6002 |archive-date=20 July 2012}}</ref><ref name="msnbc">{{cite web |first=Victoria |last=Clayton |title=Playing doctor: How to teach kids about inappropriate touch |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna5444897 |work=Growing Up Healthy |publisher=NBC News |date=6 August 2004 |access-date=4 September 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Marilyn |last=Heins |title=Sex Play: parenting strategies |url=http://www.parentkidsright.com/pt-sexplay.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080214114535/http://www.parentkidsright.com/pt-sexplay.html |work=ParentKidsRight |year=2004 |archive-date=14 February 2008 |access-date=4 September 2009}}</ref>
Playing doctor is considered by most child psychologists to be a normal step in childhood development between the ages of approximately three and six years, so long as all parties are willing participants and relatively close in age.<ref name="NTCSN.2009">{{cite report| title=Sexual Development and Behavior in Children: Information for Parents and Caregivers| year=2009| publisher=American Psychological Association| doi=10.1037/e736972011-001}}</ref> A study by American sexologist Alfred Kinsey published in the book ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Male'' (1948) found that 38.6% of all 10-year-old children practice heterosexual and homosexual doctor play.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kinsey |first1=Alfred Charles |title=Sexual Behavior in the Human Male |last2=Pomeroy |first2=Wardell Baxter |last3=Martin |first3=Clyde Eugene |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-253-33412-1}}</ref> However, it can be a source of discomfort to parents to discover their children are engaging in such an activity.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.canadianparents.com/article/i-caught-them-playing-doctor |title=I Caught Them Playing Doctor! |access-date=4 September 2009 |work=FamilyEducation |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116190323/http://www.canadianparents.com/article/i-caught-them-playing-doctor |archive-date=16 January 2009 }} Excerpted from: {{cite book | first1 = Elizabeth | last1 = Pantley | first2 = William | last2 = Sears | title = Perfect Parenting: The Dictionary of 1,000 Parenting Tips | publisher = McGraw-Hill | date = June 1997 | isbn = 978-0-8092-2847-8 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/perfectparenting00pant |page=239}}</ref> Parenting professionals often advise parents to view such a discovery as an opportunity to calmly teach their children about different sex characteristics, personal privacy, private parts, and respecting the privacy of other children.<ref name="msnbc" />
Playing doctor is distinguished from child-on-child sexual abuse, because the latter is an overt and deliberate action directed at sexual stimulation, including orgasm, coercively or in a situation of difference of knowledge, as compared to non-coercive anatomical curiosity.<ref name="loseke">{{cite book |last=Loseke |first=Donileen R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uertAAAAMAAJ |title=Current Controversies on Family Violence |author2=Gelles, Richard J. |author3=Cavanaugh, Mary M. |publisher=Sage Publications Inc |year=2005 |isbn=0-7619-2106-0 |location=Thousand Oaks, CA}}{{page needed|date=May 2014}}</ref>
== See also == * Child sexual abuse * Child sexuality * Genital play * Make believe * {{section link|Role-playing|Amusement}} * {{section link|Sibling relationship|Among children}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Playing Doctor}} Category:Child development Category:English phrases Category:Sexual anatomy Category:Child sexuality