Same and Different Twins

A quick comparing game — hold up two things and take turns finding something that is the same about them and something that is different.

  1. Choose two objects that are alike in some ways and not in others — an apple and an orange, a fork and a spoon, a shoe and a slipper, a pencil and a crayon.
  2. Put them side by side and say: “These two are almost twins. Tell me one thing that is the same.”
  3. Take turns: you say a “same,” your child says a “same,” until you run out.
  4. Now switch: “What is different?” Take turns again.
  5. Encourage looking beyond colour: “What about how it feels? What it is for? Where we keep it? What it is made of?”
  6. Keep a tally with fingers or pebbles and cheer the total: “Four sames and five differents!”

Variation: play Find My Twin — hold up one object and ask your child to fetch something from the room that is the same in one named way (“the same shape as this lid”) but different in another.

Requirements

  • Space: Any — table, floor, car, or bath
  • Surface: None needed
  • Materials: Pairs of ordinary objects (two fruits, two utensils, two shoes, two toys)
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child; easy to include a sibling
  • Supervision: Light — the adult plays as an equal turn-taker

Rationale & Objective

Same and different are the building blocks of every category — to form a concept a child must notice what a set of things shares and what sets them apart. Research by Gentner and colleagues on “structural alignment” shows that placing two things side by side and comparing them helps preschoolers notice deeper, less obvious commonalities (both are fruit, both are for eating with) instead of stopping at colour or shape. Looking across several attributes of one object — its colour, texture, material, and use — also prepares the ground for Piaget’s later “decentration,” when the child can keep more than one feature in mind at a time. Describing the comparisons grows the attribute vocabulary highlighted in the Head Start ELOF and HighScope’s classifying indicator.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: says the objects are “the same” or “not the same” overall; names one obvious difference (colour); finds it hard to say how two different things are alike
  • Developing: gives 1–2 sames and 1–2 differents, mostly about colour, shape, and size
  • Proficient: gives 3 or more of each, including what things are for, what they are made of, or how they feel
  • Advanced: names the shared category (“they are both fruit”); compares things that are not present (a bus and a train); finds a twin that matches one attribute but not another

Safety Notes

  • Choose objects that are safe to handle, squeeze, and sniff — no sharp, hot, or breakable items
  • Check for food allergies before comparing foods by smell or taste
  • When comparing people (hair, skin, height, glasses), keep the tone warm and matter-of-fact — differences are interesting, not better or worse
  • Stop while it is still fun; a long list is not the goal
  • If your child regularly confuses the words “same” and “different” themselves at age 5, mention it to a teacher or speech-language pathologist

Hints

  • Playfulness: introduce the objects as squabbling twins — “We are exactly the same!” “No we are not!” — and let the child settle the argument
  • Sustain interest: make the pairs odder over time — a cat and a dog, a bath and a puddle, a book and a tablet, you and Grandma
  • Common mistake: asking only about differences. Finding what is the same about two unlike things is the harder and more valuable half
  • Limited space: needs no objects at all — play it with words on a walk or in a queue (“a bike and a car — same? different?”)
  • Cross-domain: compare two picture-book characters (literacy); compare two leaves or shells (science); compare how two friends felt (social-emotional)
  • Progression: nearly identical objects with one difference → same kind, different look → different kinds with a hidden likeness → things not present → Find My Twin

Sources

  • Gentner, D. & Namy, L.L. (1999), “Comparison in the development of categories,” Cognitive Development, 14, 487–513
  • Gentner, D. & Markman, A.B. (1997), “Structure mapping in analogy and similarity,” American Psychologist, 52, 45–56
  • HighScope Preschool Curriculum — Key Developmental Indicator 46, Classifying (identifying similarities and differences)
  • Head Start ELOF — P-SCI 3 (“child compares and categorizes observable phenomena”)
  • Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV) — Similarities subtest