Education Questions and Answers
How to deal with stereotypical situations if child is playing in the doctors surgery?
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assume you are talking about a doctors role play area.
I often go in and play with them, through the session I 'drop' bits into the acting, to reinforce non-stereotypical situations. Like Oh you must Doctor Rachel, Nurse Paul etc. we were lucky because we had a couple of parents who were nurses including 2 dads and we asked them to come and talk with the kids in the area. They got into the roleplay with the kids.
if the children actually say ' girls cant be doctors - dads dont take you to the doctors ' etc we talk about it and ask if anyone has seen a lady doctor/ has dad taken anyone to the docs etc. The children pick it up really easy.
Can u explain further please??
That's natural, leave it alone
Do young children these days even stereotype these roles? There are many female doctors and male nurses and most children wouldn't even think that there was anything unusual about that. Why would they? My son has always had a female doctor and when he went into hopsital he had a male nurse. He didn't question that and there is no reason why he should. It was just normal for him. Young children would only stereotype these roles if adults have told them that it should be any different and I really can't see that an adult would do that.
read stories about fire person Snead, have lots of different dress up cloths, encourage boys to play at being nurses
Ensure that adults use appropriate language: EG: dont assume girls are nurses, boys are doctors. Or that a daddy cant bring their baby to hospital.
Make sure props are available to all including dressing up clothes-have nurses outfits that arent all dresses!
Find books and images to show the children of hosptials, doctors etc that show a range of people in various roles.
Listen and monitor the children and challenge any stereotyping by asking them questions, explaining to them that everyone can have different roles. Important thing is not to leave any disciminatory language or actions as you will simply reinforce the childs behaviour/attitude.
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