About ten minutes if useful. Pause, repeat, change or finish anytime.
Say this, or use your own words
Shall we help our visitor do one thing?
More words, only if useful: Something in a pretend place could be easier for its visitor. Shall we make a quiet corner, a clearer way through, or something else? You can change one part. We can try it in the story and see what our story does next.
Ready in a moment
Use any available drawing or invent a new place now. The change-panels aid is optional. Avoid real repairs, tools, rearranging furniture or assumptions about a child's own difficulties.
A loose play path
- 0–2 minutes: Offer the short opening and wait. The child might help a pretend visitor find a place to pause or a way through, choose another thing to do, or decline. The longer invitation is optional; do not make the character distressed to force help.
- 2–5 minutes: Choose one change to the invented place. Ask ‘What could that help with?’ Let the answer stay tentative. An adult can make the requested change or describe it.
- 5–8 minutes: If wanted, use the changed drawing or story in a short pretend try. Ask what actually happened in that play. If the child only plans, retain the plan without calling it tested.
- 8–10 minutes: Keep, change again or stop. A visitor can have a different preference; no one perfect solution or compulsory improvement.
Choose the useful route
- Draw or arrange: On two blank panels, make an earlier idea and a possible change. For a clearer entrance, add one doorway mark. Use one actual drawn version in pretend play if wanted; two pictures alone do not show a tested material improvement.
- Tell, sign or point: Offer quiet corner or clearer route, then an own idea. Follow the chosen answer into a described change. The child may direct the adult to alter a drawing; note the adult action separately from the child's decision and any later play.
- Small start or no materials: Say ‘Our pretend visitor wants to pause. Where could it wait?’ Accept one imaginary spot. Ask whether to play that pause or just keep the idea. No reenactment or sensory exposure is necessary.
Two ideas to borrow or change
- Music: An imagined rehearsal room gets a quiet waiting patch. The child tells the adult where it belongs and keeps it as a plan. No sound is played, and there is no claim that a real acoustic change was tested.
- Sport: A paper stadium gets a broad entry line. The child directs the adult to trace a visitor through it and then changes the destination. Record that actual directed trace, without claiming it solved a real access problem.
Notice, then choose the next move
Notice a chosen problem, proposed change and any actual pretend use. ‘Might help’ is a useful idea; it is different from observed benefit for a person.
Later, with or without this session: Offer another fictional place with an easy entry problem, or replay this one for enjoyment. No assessment or previous result is needed.
More play, only if wanted: Let two invented visitors prefer different places. Make both options available in the story; nobody has to agree on a single best design.
Optional aid: Keep a part, change a part · exact text alternative
Adult intention: Choose a pretend problem and a possible change, with optional actual play use.
All starts · Parent guide · Play helper · Sources and limits
© NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd 2026 · CC BY 4.0. Adapt freely with credit.