Don't Hit Dad
	The social rules about hitting people, animals and objects are contrasted alternately, using simple syntax and limited vocabulary.
This is a social story about managing the urge to hit people or animals. The vocabulary is small - 23 words - and the syntax is simple. The same structures recur. This Rude Reader begins with "I want to hit my dad" = putting the urge into print. The next page has a high teaching load - "Don't hit your dad" = the social rule; "He will be hurt" = the consequence; "That's not OK" = the judgement; "So don't hit you dad" = the approved behaviour. The main teaching points are that people and animals can be hurt; it is not OK to cause hurt; it is OK to hit inanimate things - quite a philosophic stretch for such a small Rude Reader. Animate nouns - dad, mum, dog, baby are alternated with inanimate nouns - pillow, ball, bag, bed. There's something very satisfying about the structural symmetry of Don't Hit Dad (Volume 5).

Don't Hit Dad

The social rules about hitting people, animals and objects are contrasted alternately, using simple syntax and limited vocabulary.

This is a social story about managing the urge to hit people or animals. The vocabulary is small - 23 words - and the syntax is simple. The same structures recur. This Rude Reader begins with "I want to hit my dad" = putting the urge into print. The next page has a high teaching load - "Don't hit your dad" = the social rule; "He will be hurt" = the consequence; "That's not OK" = the judgement; "So don't hit you dad" = the approved behaviour. The main teaching points are that people and animals can be hurt; it is not OK to cause hurt; it is OK to hit inanimate things - quite a philosophic stretch for such a small Rude Reader. Animate nouns - dad, mum, dog, baby are alternated with inanimate nouns - pillow, ball, bag, bed. There's something very satisfying about the structural symmetry of Don't Hit Dad (Volume 5).