How do I keep a clinic center gentle?

Use a toy patient rather than a child wherever possible, and set one rule early: the patient says when it stops. Model it once and it holds.

What is the reception desk for?

It gives a real role to children who do not want to examine or be examined, and it is where most of the writing in the center happens.

Back to the grown-up notes

Dramatic play setup guide

Doctor's office dramatic play: how to set it up.

Q: What do I need for a doctor's office dramatic play center?

A chair, a blanket, bandages and a doll or soft toy to be the patient. A torch and a notebook do most of the rest.

A clinic lets children rehearse something most of them have found frightening. Done gently it is one of the most useful centers you can open.

What you actually need

A chair, a blanket, bandages, and a doll or soft toy to be the patient. A torch and a notebook do most of the rest.

Use a toy patient rather than a child wherever you can. It keeps the play comfortable for the child who is nervous about doctors, which is usually the one who needs this center most.

Keep it gentle on purpose

Children will act out what they remember, and some of what they remember was not pleasant. That is fine, and it is part of why the center works.

Set one rule early: the patient says when it stops. Model it once and it holds.

The reception desk is the quiet job

Not every child wants to be examined or to examine. Reception gives them a real role that involves no touching: taking the name, finding the appointment, telling people to wait.

It is also where the writing happens, which makes it the most literacy-rich seat in the center.

What the forms are actually for

An intake form turns a vague illness into a specific one. A symptom checklist gives the doctor something to ask rather than guess.

A care plan gives the visit an ending, which is what stops the same check-up repeating for twenty minutes.

For children who are not writing yet

A symptom checklist can be pointed at. An intake form can be a drawing of where it hurts. Visit notes can be marks. Nothing here needs letters, and no page has to be finished.

Printing without emptying a cartridge

A full center in color is a lot of ink. Every kit ships in four editions, and the low ink versions keep the line work and drop the heavy fills. The A4 editions carry the same pages as the Letter ones.

The Doctor's Office kit

56 pages per edition at $6.95. Classroom signs and role badges, a patient intake form, appointment card, symptom checklist, pretend prescription, visit notes and care plan, plus picture labels, conversation prompts, sorting activities, counting materials, planning pages and storage labels. Four print editions. Digital download; props are not included.

See the pages inside the Doctor's Office kit

Try a center first

The Mail Carrier sampler is four pages: a welcome page, a name badge, an OPEN sign and a short setup guide. No email and no account.

Open the Mail Carrier sampler →