Neurodiversity Celebration Week is coming up this month, from the 18th to the 25th of March 2024. It aims to accept and celebrate our differences, particularly in the way we think, process and experience the world around us.

March’s book club pick introduces your little one to the concepts of similarities and differences. Here you’ll find what we love about this picture book, some speech and language targets that you can explore with your little one at home, activities for kids, and other childrens books about differences.

Let’s dive into ‘The Same but Different Too” by Karl Newson and illustrated by Kate Hindley

Picture Book Review

The young children in this picture book notice that they are the “same but different” with lots of animals. Some are big, some are small, some are cold and some are warm!

This picture book includes many concepts that help your little one begin to understand the world around them. The simple yet clear illustrations complement these concepts. They also help with describing and talking about each animal.

If your little one loves picture books about animals or you’re looking to introduce them to the concept of differences, this childrens books about differences is a must for your bookshelf at home!

Picture Book Themes

• Animals
• Differences

Speech and Language Targets

Explore some speech and language areas that you can embed into your story time with your little one at home. Meet your child at their level and focus on modelling 1-2 ideas at a time.

Related Post: 7 Reading Tips for Parents

Vocabulary and Concepts

• Animals: cat, dog, elephant, giraffe, frog, koala, llama, tortoise, zebra, polar bear, walrus, crocodile
• Places: kitchen, treehouse, garden, dentist, bus stop, sea, lounge, bed
• Action words: eat, drink, like, dance, reach, climb, hold, jump, hide, shiver, drive, wait, stand, swim, listen, read, sit, sleep

Grammar Structures

• Present tense verbs (e.g., am, are)
• Adjective (e.g., sleepy)
• Comparative (e.g., fewer than)
• Regular plurals (e.g., stories)
• Pronouns (e.g., me, I, you)
• Contracted negation (e.g., can’t)
• Compound sentences with connecting words (e.g., and, but, so)

Gestalt Language Processing

If your child is a gestalt language processor (i.e., learns language in chunks or scripts), use the illustrations to make comments and model mitigable gestalts naturally.

Here are some examples of mitigable gestalts that you can include in your story time. These examples are not a ‘one size fits all’ as gestalts should be chosen based on your child’s interests and what is meaningful for them.

• I am…
• You are…
• Let’s turn the page
• They’re the same but different too
• It’s a [animal]
• Can we read it again

Movement Activities For Kids

Here are some ideas of movement activities for kids that you could do after you’ve looked through this picture book together.

• Animal walks
• Run fast and slow
• Obstacle course

Speech Sounds

• m – me
• y – you, young
• d – different, do
• h – happy, high, hide, hot, hungry
• t – tall, too, teeth
• k – can’t, cold,
• f – fast, fewer,
• s cluster sounds – swim, small, slow, stories, sleepy

Early Literacy Awareness

Rhyming: you/do, small/tall, gruff/rough, cold/old

Book publisher: Nosy Crow
ISBN: 13-978-1788004008

Other Childrens Books about Differences

Are you looking for other childrens books about differences? Here are some that your preschooler may enjoy:

• The Same But Different by Molly Potter
• We All Belong by Nathalie Goss and Alex Goss
• It’s OK to be Different by Sharon Purtill

A Few More Picture Book Recommendations