# 02 · A visitor with a job

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

1. 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. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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](../print/visitor-cards.pdf) · [exact text alternative](../print/TEXT-ALTERNATIVES.md#visitor-cards)

**Adult intention:** Link an invented character's action to its own purpose.

[All starts](../README.md) · [Parent guide](../PARENT-GUIDE.md) · [Play helper](../digital/index.html) · [Sources and limits](../SOURCE-NOTES.md)

© NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd 2026 · CC BY 4.0. Adapt freely with credit.