Supporting your child’s understanding of ‘same’ and ‘different’ at home – without extra work for you!
- Therapy Talks
- Mar 4
- 2 min read
Same and different are concepts we use every day, but have you thought about how you can help your child learn them in a natural, stress-free way?
Why are same and different important? 🤔
Helping your child understand same and different is an important part of their language development.
At home it will:
Help your child sort and organize their toys, clothes and other household items such as unstacking the dishwasher.
Build your child's independence, for example find socks that match,
Support them to follow instructions e.g., "Can you get the same snack as your sister?"
At school it will support:
Your child's reading skills, for example, recognizing letters and words that look similar or different.
Early math's skills such as sorting shapes and understanding patterns
Understanding Comes First!
Understanding concepts (such as same and different) is an important part of learning that must come before expecting them to use them. If they are asked to use it before understanding, they might guess or repeat words without grasping the meaning.
How you help your child’s understanding?
Simply point out examples of things that are same and different in their daily life. Over time, as they develop an understanding of the concepts, they can begin using them independently!
3 Ways to Practice 'Same' and 'Different' at home
While preparing dinner you can comment on ingredients that are the same and different. This can be about the type of ingredient, their color and even their shape or size!
Comment on pictures that look the same and different as you read with your child.
Go for a walk with your child and comment on the same and different features of things that you find e.g., two flowers that are the same, two leaves that look different.
FREE RESOURCES
Try This Book!
‘Different? Same!’ by Heather Tekavec & Pippa Curnick
This is available as a read-along on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heKI1fOg-zc&ab_channel=BookBugStorytime
Below is an item-matching worksheet that can be used in multiple ways. Your child can trace the lines to match the same foods (version 2 is without lines to trace). For a more creative activity, your child can cut, match and colour the same foods in version 3 and can be used multiple times!
Keep it simple, have fun, and enjoy these little learning moments together!
x Speech Pathology Student Kayla Palmier from Federation University
Comments