What special needs financial literacy worksheets are needed?

[algkent]

Hello!

I am seeing a need for financial literacy worksheets and resources for special needs kids (free ones), and want to work on this. 

The problem is, while I can see people are searching for this, there are no specifics as to what adaptations (besides captioned videos and making my website on kids & money as ADA-compliant as possible) are needed. 

If you are a teacher or parent of a special needs child, it would be SO helpful for you to answer: 

• How do current financial literacy resources and worksheets for kids miss the mark for your special needs child/students? 
• What does your child struggle with when it comes to learning how to handle money, budget, count change, make a store transaction, etc.? 
• What specific worksheets and resources do you need to teach your special needs child/students how to handle money? 

And really, any other information you want to provide. 

Thank you very much for your time and energy - this is something I feel called to work on. 

[Rosie_0801]

Honestly, I wouldn't want to use worksheets for something like that.
We talk about money and use it. Using worksheets would create a layer of non-reality to deal with, to then have to relearn everything in context.

[algkent]

Hi Rosie_0801, 

Thanks so much for your response! 

I totally get that - I'm all about teaching money in in 3-D (meaning, by handling it and managing it), and not just through 2-D worksheets. 

What other resources would you look for to help a special needs child learn money? 

[algkent]

For example, you wouldn't use a budget worksheet or a spending tracker with a child? How would you teach them to track a savings goal without writing it down? 

[Rosie_0801]

1 hour ago, algkent said:

For example, you wouldn't use a budget worksheet or a spending tracker with a child? How would you teach them to track a savings goal without writing it down? 

I taught mine to keep a log book when she was selling chicken eggs, but I didn't need a worksheet for that.
When she has a savings or budgeting goal, she remembers it. If she needs to write a list, she writes a list, though probably with my prompting because hey, she's a kid. She knows what she spends in a given time period because she has receipts. To know whether she has enough money for something, she counts hers and/or looks at bank statements. If there's something she doesn't understand, she shows an appropriate adult, who explains it.

We started a food budgeting challenge at home, where she actually buys and cooks her meals for a week each school holidays, because the budgeting exercise they were given at school was so utterly removed from real life. It was something stupid like a million dollars to build an amusement park, and a kid who said the money would be better spent on public housing was told to do the assignment properly.

[algkent]

Very helpful - thanks so much for the examples and taking the time to respond. I love that your daughter sold chicken eggs! I grew up on a dairy farm, and we had to collect the eggs (I remember getting pecked:)).