Does anyone know what this could be?

I was wondering if anyone here could provide me with some information. A friend of mine approached me the other day with a problem; apparently, there is some kind of ghost/spirit in her home. It has supposedly moved a monopoly set, and child-like laughter and the sound of running can be heard. While I remain skeptical about if this is real or not, I was hoping that someone here could provide some insight into what this may be. Please keep in mind that I have never dwelled in paranormal topics such as this, excuse my ignorance. Finally, is there any way that whatever it is can be made to leave? Does holy water or rock salt work as a ghost/spirit repellant?

There are a number of small critters that can make a sound like that of a child laughing. A rustling of wings might sound like running.

The idea is to try to debunk it first, and then widen the investigation to include other possible explanations. If it gets to the point where ordinary explanations fall short, then it's time to get out the video cameras and see if something can be captured on tape.

Even then, explaining something as a "ghost" or "spirit" or "entity" really isn't and explanation. Those are just words people use in place of "I don't know."

I should have mentioned this earlier. My friend woke up with a rather cryptic message written on a sheet of paper in her hand. The message referenced a childhood memory of some kind. I sincerely hope that I am not being taken for a fool, but if we assume that it isn't some kind of prank, do ghosts do this?

I think among the wisest things to begin with, is to investigate the history of the house, aswell as your friend, and look for possible deaths of young children and the like. Without it, there will be too many riddles.

I have never experienced a written note from a ghost/spirit/whatever, but I suppose this could happen. Your friend should try to video some place in the house where unexplained things generally occur. We did that in a house where we lived and we got some unexpected shadows moving across a wall and onto another wall. By the way, we could not discern any reason for these moving shadows. We experienced many different events in that house that could not be explained using logic and could not be recreated in any way we could imagine or try to reconstruct. Perhaps your friend is playing a prank on you, or someone is playing a prank on your friend, but intense investigation and attempts to recreate events can help rule out some things people allude to as the cause of these events. For example, one thing we could not figure out was how to recreate the sounds of heavy foot steps coming from the attic when no one was present above the first floor. We did recreate the sound of the footsteps, but not without making the chandelier move, which didn't move when whatever was making those loud noises made the noises.
While we could not recreate the sound of the battering noise from within a certain wall, because, well, none of us could get inside the wall, it certainly couldn't have been caused by a mouse or rat as some suggested to us, well, because I don't believe there was room enough for such a large rodent inside the wall to cause such a ruckus that I couldn't recreate even with my pounding my fist on the wall. We never bothered to have the house checked by a ghost hunter or psychic, though. But we knew quite a few people who had rented the house prior to us and they, too, had many things to tell about events that could not be explained. Things like waking up to find a small boy sitting on your chest and choking you, or the see through image of a girl about 8 years old walking through one closed door in the master bedroom, across the room and out the other closed door, every evening at 8 PM. Or the one thing that made my wife a true believer in the supernatural, the impression made from an invisible being sitting on the soft mattress of our bed and feeling a hand laid heavily upon her shoulder. What got me most was the large black dog, with the slobbery red tongue hanging out of its mouth as it walked from the foyer down the hall to the downstairs bathroom. Anyway, I suppose a spirit or ghost or whatever could leave a written note in some sleeping person's hand. Have fun checking it out.

Originally posted by Nightchild
I think among the wisest things to begin with, is to investigate the history of the house, aswell as your friend, and look for possible deaths of young children and the like. Without it, there will be too many riddles.

Good ideas
I would like to add to look into the land history. Many times spirits are tied to the land. Pull public records on where you live. Ask "older" neighbors about the history of the area and even go to the library and pull old news papers. It takes some time but the information is out there.

In my own experience of a haunted house, the only thing that worked was ignoring it. It fed on fear. So I was not afraid. I Ignored it. It got worse, then when that did not work, they tried to get my attention through humor.
I ignored it. It went away. It took some months but it did work .

It seems to be a ghost of a child, those kind of spirits are not dangerous, they are friendly and just like to play around. In my opinion, it would be better to leave the spirit as it is.

Video and audio would be a good place to start and most people have equipment right at home.

But the real truth is this how does it feel to you.......?If you think about it does it strike you as genuine or not.

PS