About ten minutes if useful. Pause, repeat, change or finish anytime.
Say this, or use your own words
What message shall we leave for our visitor?
More words, only if useful: A visitor has something to tell another visitor. What could the message be? A mark, a picture, a word, a sign or your own way can carry it. Tell me what it means, and I can help keep that meaning with it.
Ready in a moment
A blank page or message-board aid. An adult reads all print when needed. No letter formation, independent reading or public posting is required.
A loose play path
- 0–2 minutes: Ask who the pretend message is for, or whether it is a private reminder. Offer one playful situation, such as a cloud picnic, only if the child needs an entry.
- 2–5 minutes: Make the message in a chosen form. Ask ‘What does this mean in your story?’ An adult can write the child's dictated words with permission; name that support.
- 5–8 minutes: Use the message in pretend play. The adult can be a recipient who asks for its meaning. Do not treat an unfamiliar symbol as universally understood or guess the child's intended meaning.
- 8–10 minutes: Decide where the message stays, or let it disappear. Keeping a meaningful mark is enough; no correct spelling or audience approval gate.
Choose the useful route
- Draw or arrange: Make one broad mark or picture and give it a specific meaning, such as ‘quiet place here’. Put it beside a named imaginary spot. If an adult makes the mark on direction, preserve the child's message choice without claiming independent writing.
- Tell, sign or point: The child uses a familiar sign, AAC, voice or agreed point to deliver a pretend message. The adult repeats the meaning to check it. It can be used immediately without any paper; an existing communication symbol keeps its established meaning.
- Small start or no materials: Offer ‘come in’, ‘wait’ or another message the child chooses for a visitor. Deliver it together in the story, or keep it private. Declining to send is a valid choice; there is no requirement to communicate with a new person.
Two ideas to borrow or change
- Food play: A child makes a broad circle for ‘our pretend soup is ready’. The adult asks its meaning, then plays a visitor hearing that message. This does not require real food or imply a circle always means soup.
- Workshop: A child directs a drawing of a closed doorway and says ‘wait while the imaginary machine rests’. The adult scribes the phrase separately. The child's chosen message is recorded; the adult's handwriting is not scored as the child's.
Notice, then choose the next move
Notice the child's actual intended meaning and its use or plan. A mark with no available meaning remains an open creation, not a communication failure.
Later, with or without this session: Invent a fresh message for a pretend place. No earlier sign or spelling knowledge is required.
More play, only if wanted: Choose a second way to carry the same meaning, such as a drawing and a spoken message. Ask what each one helps with here, without ranking communication modes.
Optional aid: A little message · exact text alternative
Adult intention: Give a made message a meaning and a chosen recipient or private purpose.
All starts · Parent guide · Play helper · Sources and limits
© NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd 2026 · CC BY 4.0. Adapt freely with credit.