{"id":7421,"date":"2022-03-24T18:20:32","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T17:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nixiforchildren.com\/es\/?page_id=7421"},"modified":"2025-11-19T14:35:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T13:35:56","slug":"medicalplay","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nixiforchildren.com\/en\/medicalplay\/","title":{"rendered":"Plataforma – 8 – Medical play (generic)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Medical play<\/span><\/p><\/h1><\/div>

by Verena del Valle<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Medical play<\/span><\/p><\/h1><\/div>

by Verena del Valle<\/p>\n<\/div>

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It is human to talk about difficult topics when we feel compelled to do so. In this capsule, I will talk to you about the importance of taking advantage of calm family time<\/strong>, for example, during time spent together playing. We can take advantage of these occasions to discuss, in a relaxed manner, topics that may be more or less sensitive, such as hospitalization or a surgery, and which will be much more difficult to discuss in emergency situations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

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“These moments of complicity as a family also encourage our children to open up to us and to share an issue that might be troubling them at that moment.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

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There is no better medicine than knowledge to combat the fear and uncertainty that new situations can generate<\/strong> in both adults and children. Even so, by showing the Virtual Reality experiences with real hospital spaces, we will have already come a long way the days before the surgery. Next I propose a series of activities that you can carry out at home to help your children to go through (and remember<\/strong>) a future medical experience, which for many could be stressful, as an (in many cases) enriching adventure.<\/p>\n

If your child is used to playing with stuffed animals or dolls, this first activity that I propose will be quite easy to carry out. It is a role-playing game in which you will exchange the roles of doctor and patient. Ideally, you will propose to your child to choose which stuffed animal or doll he\/she wants to use for this game (it is possible, but not certain, that he\/she does not want one of his\/her favorite stuffed animals to be “sick”…). From Nixi for Children we offer the Nixi’s plush toy<\/strong><\/a> to prevent this situation from happening, which is algo doll that is anatomically designed to facilitate the explanation of medical processes.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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“We will have already come a long way if we have shown the Virtual Reality experiences, with the real hospital spaces, the days before the surgery.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Role playing<\/h3><\/h1><\/div>

To begin with, you will decide who plays the role of mommy\/daddy and who plays the role of the doctor. When your child is the parent of the stuffed animal, they will have to explain to you what is wrong with their stuffed animal (depending on the age of your child, this information will be more or less precise: for how long they have had the symptoms, if they are taking any medication or possible allergies). In this interaction, the mom or dad, while playing the role of doctor, could even ask the stuffed animal how they are doing at school or ask them about their best friends. When you start the medical examination of the plush toy, suggest to the child that the plush sits on their lap<\/strong> (instead of on the examination table) so that you can practice the comfort positions (for more information, see the specific capsule on this subject). Once the examination is over, you can present the medical diagnosis of the stuffed animal and explain to your child the need for surgery<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

When you recreate the day of the operation, you should mainly emphasize the experience of the stuffed animal\/patient: that is why we will describe in great detail the pre-surgery controls (putting the thermometer, measuring, weighing, checking blood pressure, saturation meter…), always emphasizing “the job” of the plush<\/strong> (“stuffed animal, your job will be to act like a statue while we measure you, weigh you, check your temperature”…). See the capsule Your job<\/strong><\/a> to learn about the importance of defining responsibilities.<\/p>\n

This game is more fun the more we get involved in it, either by building a doctor’s office with a reading lamp and a computer keyboard, with which we will pretend to enter the patient’s data in his medical record, or even by recreating the entrance to the hospital and the moment of induction to anesthesia. Regarding the induction of anesthesia, ideally you will have informed yourself about how it will actually be for the child (there are two different ways: with an IV that administers the anesthesia or with an anesthesia mask<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

It should be noted that when the induction of anesthesia is done via mask, there is no need to go into detail about how the line (the catheter) is put in because that is done once the child is already under anesthesia and at that point is no longer conscious). For more information on how to explain medical events, see the capsule The Five Senses Rule<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

A fair simple way to explain anesthesia would be to talk about a “special great sleep<\/strong>“. It’s a special sleep because the child doesn’t have to try to sleep, doesn’t have to be tired, and doesn’t have to close their eyes! It is the medicine, the anesthesia, that is in charge of making the child sleep. It is a great sleep because during the anesthesia the operation is performed, so that for the child it is as if the operation were not performed because they do not know anything. Summary: the child’s job will be to receive the medicine that will make them to sleep (if the child tells us “I don’t want to sleep”, validate this emotion<\/strong>, and tell them that it’s okay because they won’t have to try to sleep).<\/p>\n<\/div>

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The other game I wanted to talk about will be more appropriate if our child is older and already finds it easier to express themselves and communicate their feelings with words. It’s called “therapeutic Jenga<\/strong>” and is frequently used by ChildLife Specialists all over the world. If you want to know more about how to use the game to communicate with your child, I highly recommend the episode of #NixiMeets by Jackie Raftery<\/em><\/a>, a ChildLife Specialist from the United States who goes over multiple ways to work on our children’s emotions through games!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
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Therapeutic Jenga<\/h3><\/h1><\/div>
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The basic concept of the game would be exactly the same as Jenga but with a little twist (I advise that if you don’t know this game or have never played it, give it a try). Think of a series of questions; they can be very simple, such as: What flavor of ice cream is your favorite? Or they can be more personal, such as: Who is your best friend and why? Write also questions related to the operation: What is your doctor’s name? or What movie do you want to see the day before the operation? Introducing these concepts will make our child think about that day, so we can also take the opportunity to talk about it and open up to us.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you run out of ideas, here are some questions you could add to the game:<\/p>\n