In today’s fast-paced world, teaching money skills is more important than ever, especially for individuals with exceptionalities.
A big part of special education is supporting students as they develop confidence and independence.
Financial literacy is a crucial life skill that requires a lot of scaffolding and practice on the way to mastery. Keep reading to discover how to start mastering the basics of money skills which can pave the way for a secure and independent future for our exceptional learners!
Where to Start with Teaching Money Skills?
The first step to understanding how money works is to learn that each coin or bill has value. There are two parts to this concept that students need to learn.
First, each individual coin and bill has a different value. It can be challenging to understand that money as an object represents a certain value or has a certain worth.
This becomes complicated by the fact that each one is worth a different amount.
To address this concept, you can use task box activities that allow students to match coins and bills to their values (such as the one shown below).
You can start by helping students to identify the different coins and bills by matching them to each other.
Start with errorless learning and move to matching coins and bills when presented with several options.
In the image below, you can see an example of errorless matching tasks, as well as matching without prompts. This scaffolding allows students to progress as they learn the different coins and bills.
Once students are able to identify the different bills and coins, they can begin to learn which value is associated with each one. This can also include learning the names of the coins and bills, but this is really less important than understanding the value of each piece of money.
What Money Skills to Teach Next?
The second part of understanding the value of money is that each coin or bill can be exchanged for something that you want or need. This also includes the idea that each item that you want or need has its own value as well.
To learn this concept, you can start by role-playing store scenarios where students have to exchange a coin or bill for an item. This can happen in conjunction with learning the value of each piece of money since you could role-play exchanging one thing for another without associating values to them yet.
This can look like a mock store in the classroom, earning tokens which are exchanged for preferred items or activities (such as in the freebie token board shown below). It can also include ordering from a menu when role-playing restaurant skills, or setting up a tuck shop in the school community.
Once students have begun working on money identification and values, they can also begin working on skip counting, which is the first step to learning how to count money.
Skip counting allows students to work toward counting a group of various coins and bills at once.
Start with counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s up to 100. You can use manipulatives, such as number lines, to support students as they begin to work on this skill.
Remember that every student is unique. What works for one might not work for another. Tailor your teaching methods to suit each student’s learning style and pace.
In Short…
Teaching money skills in a special education student program is not just about numbers and transactions. It’s about empowering them with the confidence and independence to navigate the world around them.
With patience, creativity, and a deep understanding of each student’s unique needs, educators can make a significant impact on their students’ lives.
For more tips and strategies for your special education classroom, subscribe to this blog so you don’t miss out on any future posts!
You can also check out my TPT store for more special education resources!
I always love hear from you, send me an email to let me know how you are teaching money skills in your classroom. If you have any requests for resources or future blog post topics, let me know!!
XO Alana from Exceptional Education CA