Materials
Tagboard
Scissors
Marker
Instructions
1. Give a baby doll to a child. Explain to the child that the baby is "sick" and
that you would like her to call the doctor.
2. Give the child an old telephone or a play phone and ask her to pretend to
call the doctor. An adult can pretend to be the doctor or another (very verbal)
child can take the role.
3. Encourage the child who has the sick baby to describe the baby's symptoms
to the doctor. The doctor can give the child some hints to help her along. For
example, the doctor can ask, "Does your baby have a fever?" and "Does the
baby have a stomachache?" If a child is playing the doctor role, give her some
hints or words to repeat.
4. After the child has described the baby's symptoms, ask the child to take the
baby to the hospital for treatment.
5. The objective of this activity is to encourage the children to be as verbal as
possible and extend their vocabularies, so encourage lots of talking.
More to do
Dramatic Play: Set up an area that can serve as a hospital for the sick babies.
Stock it with medical supplies such as gowns, masks, lab coats, play
thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, empty pill bottles, fake syringes, phones,
charts, and so on. Put a couple of baby doll cribs in the area for the sick patients
and a small table designated as the exam table.
