Walking In The Hallway Social Story

State the four stair rules in the first person: walk rather than run, face forwards, take one step at a time, and do not jump

Explain why stairs can be dangerous when they are not used carefully

Connect safe behaviour on the stairs to not getting hurt and to feeling happy about it

Each rule has a page of its own, so a child who only needs one of the four can be given that page rather than the whole story.

Pages 2 and 3 speak generally about stairs before the story turns to "I" on page 4, which makes them the natural point to pause and talk about the stairs in your own building.

The final page moves from feeling safe to the teacher being pleased, so it is worth deciding in advance whether the adult named should be the teacher or someone at home.

The wording is British - walk forwards, silly, sensibly - so a class used to American phrasing may need those three words said aloud once before reading.

Rule recall in the first person - each rule opens "To be safe on the stairs I must", so the child reads it as their own statement rather than as an instruction given to them.

Cause and effect - the story sets "if you are silly on the stairs you could fall and really hurt yourself" against "when I am safe on the stairs I will not get hurt".

Following a routine one step at a time - four rules are given a page each rather than as a list, so each can be read, practised and revisited on its own.