These Same and Different worksheets teach students to distinguish between similar items and help them build strong visual discrimination skills. This is important as it plays a key role in learning to read. Children must be able to distinguish between similar letters and words to be successful readers.

Each worksheet requires students to look at sets of four items and determine which one is different from the others. The worksheets get progressively harder. You can work through them from beginning to end, or assign specific pages to students based on their ability level.

Students will distinguish between:

• common objects
• common objects that are visually similar
• shapes
• upper case letters
• upper case letters that are visually similar
• lower case letters
• lower case letters that are visually similar
• numbers
• numbers that are visually similar
• directional arrows

There are two sets of same and different worksheets in this resource:

SET A

Students colour the three items in each row that are the same. There will be one item that does not match and should not be coloured.

SET B

Students colour the one item in each row that is different from the others.

Each set contains 13 worksheets and are very similar. The differences are the instructions (to colour either the objects that are the same or the item that is different) and the order in which the pictures appear.

These same and different visual discrimination worksheets are great for preschool and kindergarten pre-readers or special education students.