About ten minutes if useful. Pause, repeat, change or finish anytime.
Say this, or use your own words
What could our pretend visitor do here?
More words, only if useful: Our pretend place can have a visitor. What could it do there? Maybe it carries a message, looks after a garden, or simply rests. You can invent it with one shape or tell me about it. It does not need a face or a name.
Ready in a moment
Use an earlier place only if it is really available and wanted; otherwise name or draw a new one now. Optional broad visitor drawings are suggestions, not child creations.
A loose play path
- 0–2 minutes: Invite a fresh visitor. Ask ‘What is it here to do?’ Accept resting, looking or no assigned job. Avoid questions about the child's own family or work.
- 2–5 minutes: Make or describe one character feature that helps the chosen idea. An imaginary mail carrier might have a broad message pocket; a resting visitor may need no added feature.
- 5–8 minutes: Play one short arrival or action. ‘The message is here. Where shall it go?’ Let the child make the next move, including changing the job or making a second character.
- 8–10 minutes: Ask what should stay. The visitor can remain unnamed; do not turn the play into a written description task.
Choose the useful route
- Draw or arrange: Choose one supplied broad shape or draw an own visitor. Add a broad basket mark, a looking window or nothing. Place it in an imagined scene on the page and decide what happens; choosing supplied art is different from drawing its design.
- Tell, sign or point: The adult names two possible jobs, then offers another idea or no job. Use the child's established communication to choose. Ask one open follow-up about the action and turn the answer into a short pretend exchange; no spoken sentence or character count is required.
- Small start or no materials: Use the adult's narrated visitor: ‘I have a pretend message. May I leave it here?’ The child can agree, decline or direct another imagined spot. Keep the real adult still and comfortable; imaginary action does not require physical acting.
Two ideas to borrow or change
- Garden: A child makes a triangular visitor that checks a pretend greenhouse window. They say it looks rather than waters. The adult follows that job instead of adding real water, seeds or plant facts to a story.
- Library: A round visitor delivers a made-up book to a cloud shelf. The child directs the adult to draw a large pocket. That drawing is adult-made on the child's direction; it does not demonstrate the child's pencil control.
Notice, then choose the next move
Notice a child-owned link between visitor, action and purpose. A character label supplied by an adult alone is not that link.
Later, with or without this session: Offer a new job for a new or remembered visitor. If the earlier story is gone, make a fresh one with one short choice.
More play, only if wanted: Play a visit where the visitor politely asks before entering. Either character can say no; nobody has to perform for an audience.
Optional aid: A visitor, or my own idea · exact text alternative
Adult intention: Link an invented character's action to its own purpose.
All starts · Parent guide · Play helper · Sources and limits
© NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd 2026 · CC BY 4.0. Adapt freely with credit.