Try it Tuesday: Teaching Money

Teaching Values of Coins
If you are using some type of concrete representation for numbers, such as numicon (which I recommend HIGHLY), one can teach the fact that each type of coin has a separate VALUE by taping/placing the coin over the representation. [I scanned the numicon, and the money, and put one picture on top of the other, printed, cut, and laminated, and re-cut. This way the money can’t fall off.]
(Shown are numicon shapes for one, two, and five, with the one/two/five coins, respectively, on top.) (Don’t worry if you don’t recognize the coins. They are Israeli.)
I also made several scanned copies of the coins alone, to be used in counting in 2’s and 5’s practice.

Finally, I made a match-the–pair card game where the child has to match up identical sums. I scanned money (against a white background), including both sides of the coins. Afterwards, I printed cards with varying amounts of currency, matching pairs having a different color of frame. (Coloring the back of the card with a dark color of crayon makes them non see-through. Again, take care to keep one half of all pairs one color, and the second half a different color.) Then I cut out the cards, and laminated them, and cut them out again for the final result.

Now “teaching how to manage money and how to make decisions about spending, saving and giving” is still mostly beyond our experience. I did notice that Woodbinehouse’s book Teaching Math to People with Down Syndrome and Other Hands-On Learners
Book 1 has a good game to work on this problem.
It seems to me that a good place to start would be to make a running commentary on my own purchases when I am with her. How much things cost, why I am choosing this and not that (quality versus price), and to gradually, as she absorbs the information (ie, she knows that a bottle of soda juice costs 1.5 to 2 dollars), involve her in the decision making process. Also it would help to often give the child a choice: I am willing to buy you X or Y, so that they can see that you don’t always buy ALL.
Another skill needed is that of returning defective objects, and avoiding being made into a "sucker". I have posted on that HERE.
and (a lesson in "watching out")HERE
A final note: to any of you who may be reading from here in Israel, Mattach has an excellent computer game (see HERE) on money matters, for the special-needs population. It covers everything from recognising coins and bills, paying the correct amount, knowing the amount of chance deserved, and a bit about social aspects of money (what is a wage, etc). You can make its menu only show what you are interested that the child work on. This is not a replacement for one-on one teaching, but Ricki LOVES it, and I find it to be a very good "practice your skills" program.