Same or Different?

What Same or Different? practices

Same or Different? is a listening game. Two puppets each say a word, and your child decides whether they said the same word or two different ones. A pair can be the same word twice or two words that differ by one sound.

The spoken words are not printed, so your child can answer by listening and choosing faces without reading. Before playing, model one same pair, such as sat and sat, and one different pair, such as sat and sit.

Who it suits

Pre-readers and early readers, about ages four to six, and English learners whose home language does not separate some English vowels. A child who mixes up pin and pen in speech or spelling will get a lot from it.

How a round goes

The left puppet speaks, then the right one, and your child taps the card with matching faces for same or different faces for different. Tapping a puppet replays its word. An answer tapped early is held until the second word finishes, so nothing is rushed.

A wrong answer makes the puppets shrug and say their words again, more slowly, and your child tries once more. A right answer earns a puppet high five, and the next pair follows straight on.

A tip for home

Play the puppet game yourself with two socks on your hands. Say pairs like “pin… pan” and “sit… sit” and let your child call “same” or “different”. Keep your face neutral so the only clue is the sound.

Try next

• Do you hear it? — finds one named sound inside a word instead of comparing two.
• Silly or Right? — the same one-sound pairs, now read in print.
• Change a Sound — your child swaps that one sound to make a new word.
• Sound Sort — finds every picture that shares one sound, from a whole board.

More from “Listening for sounds”

• Clap the Parts — Clap the beats in a spoken word.
• First Sound — Hear a sound, then pick the picture that starts with it.

Read more

How to teach blending, step by step: the listening groundwork that makes blending with letters so much easier.