The linguistics of cooties (and other weird things kids say)

Children's world is a lot darker, weirder and perhaps more creatively resilient than adults often assume. The game of cooties lets children learn about the idea of contagion, but kid culture and wordplay aren’t meant for adults. Amid parents' anxiety to explain the coronavirus crisis to their kids, JSTOR Daily's resident linguist Chi Luu, analyses why communication between kids themselves is often sufficient and resourceful for matters like these.