Unlocking Independence: Developing Money Management Skills

By Andrea Lee with Glen Hoos

Reprinted from 3.21: Canada’s Down Syndrome Magazine (Issue #21: The Money Issue). Click here to download the full magazine.

What do having a job, navigating the community, shopping, and going on social outings all have in common?

They are all activities that a person with Down syndrome might aspire to do independently.
They all involve money.

Virtually every aspect of daily life involves a financial transaction at some point. Consequently, when it comes to unlocking independence for people with Down syndrome, few skills are more valuable than money management.

Adults with Down syndrome want autonomy from their parents. They see their same-age peers managing their own money and making their own purchases, and they naturally want the same for themselves. It makes them feel good to be in control of their money and to have authority over their own spending decisions.

While most parents desire to support their adult child’s independence, money can be a sticky topic. It’s a chicken and egg situation: the individual needs to be entrusted with money to learn to make good decisions with it, but we fear that poor decisions will be made as part of that learning process. Whether it’s income from a job or disability benefits, we want them making wise, informed decisions about where that money goes.

As a teacher, I’ve found that money math and budgeting can be very challenging concepts for people with Down syndrome to master. That can be frustrating, because they don’t want to make outrageous purchases any more than we want them to. The good news is, with the right support, these skills can be developed over time, allowing for a level of self-sufficiency that won’t keep parents up at night.

Common Struggles

First, let’s talk about why money management can be so hard. A 2019 study by Monica Cuskelly and Rhonda Faragher suggests that people with Down syndrome may have a higher rate of dyscalculia than the typical population.[i] Dyscalculia is a learning disorder that affects a person’s ability to do math. Much like dyslexia disrupts areas of the brain related to reading, dyscalculia affects brain areas that handle math- and number-related skills and understanding.^[ii]

People with dyscalculia do not have the mental number line that people without dyscalculia possess. This impacts their ability to compare numbers in their mind; for example, knowing intuitively that 12 is less than 15 or even less than 100, or that six is more than zero.

This makes something like budgeting really tricky. If you have $40 in your bank account and you’re looking at the price of an item, and you’re not sure whether it’s more or less than what you have, how do you make that purchase decision? Without visual aids, concrete strategies, or some other support, it is very difficult. And it affects every purchase, because every purchase involves comparing numbers.

There are also struggles that have nothing to do with math, such as the ability to prioritize needs vs. wants. This is something we talk a lot about in my adult math program. What do you need for your health and well-being, and is that more or less important than something that you just want for fun? We try to teach them to take care of their needs first, and then if there is leftover money, you can get something you want.

Some adults with Down syndrome don’t have to worry too much about this. In many cases, their parents take care of their basic needs. They may not pay rent or buy groceries. This gives them more flexibility, but it gives us the opportunity to do some teaching around impulse control. Because, even within the realm of wants, there are still good purchases and bad purchases, and they need support in those decisions.

Many of my students have very little understanding of the importance of saving. If they have the money, they spend it all, every single time. Often, this comes down to a lack of opportunity to exercise responsibility. Those who have been given a little more responsibility, and who have had to live with the consequences of poor spending decisions in the past, exercise a bit more caution. Again, though, it can be tough for parents to let go and allow them to learn from mistakes when there is real money on the line.

There are also some core concepts that are more abstract, like the idea of value. Is this a good deal? Can I get a better deal? Should I pay $10 for this pair of socks, or am I better off buying that other pair of socks for $1? It’s another question of comparison, but instead of comparing numbers we are comparing items and determining which is more valuable.

And then there are the practical skills. Surprisingly, I find it’s usually no longer that necessary to teach students to identify money and count cash, because very few use cash now. But skills like how to read a menu, how to read a price on a store shelf, how to identify prices online, accounting for taxes and tips, and transactional etiquette all need to be explicitly taught.

Teaching Strategies and Supports

Learners with Down syndrome respond well to visual supports, so it’s important to incorporate visuals and concrete tools as you work to develop money skills. The number line is a classic tool: a straight horizontal line that represents numbers visually, which students can use to compare numbers.

Some of my students came up with a modern twist on the number line. They’ll open their calendar app on their phone and use the days on the calendar, 1-30, as a comparison tool. I think it’s genius, and I didn’t teach them that! But it’s now become a go-to approach for me. I’ll say, “If I have $15, what price can I afford?” And they know that it’s any number that comes before 15 on the calendar.

It can also be helpful to make the comparison visual. Some students can’t tell me whether $12 is more or less than $6. But if I ask them who’s older, a 12-year-old or a 6-year-old, they can do that. Then I say, “Well, if a 12-year-old older than a 6-year-old, what’s more: $12 or $6?” Simply reframing it like this can help them get it.

When it comes to teaching budgeting, I will focus on really small budgets at first, such as the budget for purchasing a single item. We have this one goal in mind and we’re going to budget towards that before we focus on saving or developing a monthly budget. Earlier in my teaching career with students with Down syndrome, I used to teach monthly budgeting, but I found it to be out of reach for most students. In nine years of instructing over 100 adults in money math, I only found two people who could maintain their monthly budget independently when the class was over – but many more of them can successfully budget for a single purchase. This comes with the caveat – the students who come to see me are the ones who are already having difficulty with money math and budgeting.

I’ve found we need to be extremely concrete. None of my students have ever saved money just to save money, whether for a rainy day fund or a far-off goal like moving out. It has to be more immediate, like, “I need $800 for an iPad,” and then we chip away towards that target. Or, they may need an extra $50 a month to go toward a date night with their boyfriend or girlfriend. So, we make a chart with a picture of the significant other, and that makes it real. When we get bogged down in numbers, they will often lose focus.

We also make spending lists. If they have a list of things they have to spend money on each month, we’ll write that out and they have to check off each item as they pay for it, and track how much money is left. It’s highly visual, and they can keep it in their purse or wallet to help them stay on track.

One young woman I worked with, she and her parents would check her bank account together every week, and she would write down how much was in it. Then they would determine how much she could spend that week. And she would just write it on a little post-it note and keep it in her wallet. Little visual reminders like this help because we all know what it’s like to check our bank account, and the next time we look it’s empty, and we can’t remember where the money went!

Teachable Moments

Often the best learning happens on the go, as we go about our daily life. Numbers are everywhere! Developing money management skills need not be merely an academic task; it can take place anytime the opportunity presents itself.

When a child is young, you can begin teaching counting and the concept of one-to-one correspondence (that one item has a value of one). You can demonstrate this as you’re setting the table: “One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me.” Count things explicitly; slow down and use a lot of comparative language, such as more and less, older and younger, shorter and taller.

With the concept of more and less, I find that many people with Down syndrome have an easier time grasping “more” than “less.” A student may be able to tell me that ten is more than six, but when I ask which number is less, they’re not so sure.

A practical approach to teaching this lesson may be when you’re serving dinner. “You started with six meatballs, but you ate one, so now you have one less (five).” Or, perhaps the individual is interested in sports. We often focus on “Who’s the winner?” The Canucks have more goals, so they win. But we don’t point out that the Leafs have less goals, so they lose. (Sorry, we’re showing our west coast bias here.)

When you’re at a restaurant and they’re deciding what to order, ask them, “Which item is more expensive? Which one is cheaper?” Modeling your thinking patterns is useful. Compare the prices; read them out loud. Tell the family, “I don’t want this family dinner to cost more than $100. Everybody, let’s pick some something less expensive.”

Money management is not a skill that will be mastered overnight. This will be a long-term endeavour. But the payoff, in the form of increased independence and self-esteem, is well worth the investment.

Below are some fun learn-at-home activities for developing money math skills. Visit DSRF.org/LearnAtHome for more ideas!

Shopping Scavenger Hunt

While shopping, send the child on a scavenger hunt:

Find something that costs more than $____.
Find something that costs less than $____.
Can you find two items that are equal?
What can I buy with $5/$10/$20/etc.?

Real World Scenarios

Use story problems involving real world scenarios so that your child gets used to using math for a purpose. For example: “You saw a hat you liked at the store. It cost $10. Your dad pays you $6 for raking the leaves. Your mom pays you $5 for taking out the garbage. Do you have enough money to buy the hat?”

Round Up and Pay

Have your child pick an item from a menu, flyer, or online store, write down the price, round it up to the next dollar, then pay with the smallest bill. Have a number line available to reference.

Flyer or Menu Math

Use flyers or menus from stores that your child is familiar with to work on simple budgeting and purchasing. Give them a set amount of money and ask them to choose some items that they can afford. Use a calculator to figure out how much change they should get back. Discuss which items are more expensive and what the better deals are.

[i] Cuskelly, Monica and Rhonda Faragher. “Developmental Dyscalculia and Down Syndrome: Indicative Evidence.” Feb. 7, 2019. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1034912X.2019.1569209

[ii] Cleveland Clinic: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23949-dyscalculia