Playing doctor

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title: "Playing doctor" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["child-development", "english-phrases", "sexual-anatomy", "child-sexuality"] description: "Juvenile exploratory play" topic_path: "science/biology" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_doctor" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Juvenile exploratory play ::

::callout[type=note] juvenile exploration ::

"Playing doctor" is a phrase used colloquially in the Western world to refer to children examining each other's genitals. 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.

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. 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. However, it can be a source of discomfort to parents to discover their children are engaging in such an activity. 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.

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.

References

References

1. (June 1997). "Is Your Preschooler Playing Doctor?". [[Penguin Group]].
2. Pike, Lynn Blinn. (January 2001). "Sexuality and Your Child: For Children Ages 3 to 7". University of Missouri Extension.
3. Clayton, Victoria. (6 August 2004). "Playing doctor: How to teach kids about inappropriate touch". NBC News.
4. Heins, Marilyn. (2004). "Sex Play: parenting strategies". ParentKidsRight.
5. (2009). "Sexual Development and Behavior in Children: Information for Parents and Caregivers". American Psychological Association.
6. (1998). "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male". Indiana University Press.
7. (June 1997). "I Caught Them Playing Doctor!". McGraw-Hill.
8. Loseke, Donileen R.. (May 2014). "Current Controversies on Family Violence". Sage Publications Inc.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::