How the Coronavirus Is Influencing Children’s Play
Play is children’s language, and parents shouldn’t be concerned if the pandemic has been showing up in kids’ games lately.
During a recent game of doctor, John Miles’s daughter was examining her younger sister. The 4-year-old measured her sister’s temperature with a fake thermometer, listened to her heart and breath with a toy stethoscope, and tested her reflexes with gentle taps from a small plastic hammer. After the examination, she diagnosed her patient with the coronavirus and declared in a matter-of-fact tone that her sister would probably die.
In the middle of a disaster—such as the current pandemic—many parents witness episodes like these. “It’s upended [kids’] lives. It’s natural that it would be on their minds,” Sandra Russ, a professor who studies play at
