# 04 · Leave a little message

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

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

**Adult intention:** Give a made message a meaning and a chosen recipient or private 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.