Keeping track of expenses and income can be a challenge for anybody – even a mature adult. Balancing money coming in with money coming out can be difficult, and then when you throw splurges and “too-good-to-be-true” shopping deals in there? Forget about it.
The reality is that good money management skills don’t come naturally and often, young people have to learn the hard way that it’s more important to save money for groceries than it is to splurge on the latest video game.
If you work closely (or live with) a child with unique learning needs, it’s important that you teach him or her the importance of budgeting early. This is particularly true if the child will one day live on his or her own, but it’s necessary in all cases.
There are many tools and tricks you can use to teach an individual with autism or other needs how to budget. If you work with other children – or have other children – these tips can also be implemented for them, too.
It’s never too soon to start thinking about budgeting, and these tips for teaching a child with diverse learning needs about budgeting can help you – regardless of the age or ability level of your child.
When to Start Teaching Budgeting
There’s no magic timeline as to when you should start teaching money management skills, like budgeting, to a child with disabilities. The reality is that most of these skills are best developed over time, and each individual is unique as to when they will learn various skills, tips, and tricks.
The best time to start teaching budgeting is as early as possible. Many of these skills can be tailored to the individual child and based on his or her age and cognitive level. You don’t have to ist a five-year-old down and explain how to use Excel for budgeting. However, you can start allowing him or her to pay for small purchases in stores, for example.
Teach Key Terms
One of the most challenging parts of creating a budget, for many people, is understanding the lingo that goes along with it. Before you hand over a cent to begin the process of learning how to budget, teach your child keywords like:
- Expense
- Budget
- ATM
- Checking Account
- Credit Card
- etc.
That way, you don’t have to worry about being caught off guard.
Develop a Real Budget
This tip works best for parents, although there are some teachers and paraprofessionals who may be able to incorporate this idea into their classrooms, too. Consider giving your child a budget to go out and about in the community.
There’s nothing like real-life experience to teach money management, so consider giving your child some money when going to a restaurant or a certain store. Discuss ahead of time how much money is in the budget and what needs to be purchased. This can help foster good budgeting skills as well as good decision-making and planning skills.
Make a List
When you are teaching a child with unique learning needs – or any child, for that matter – how to budget, one of the best things you can do is to make a list. Sit down with your child and have them list out their needs and wants. Then, do some research on what those things cost and make a plan to pay for them. This is a great way to learn how to prioritize expenses and teach good money management skills.
Play Board Games
Did you know that many popular board games rely on budgeting and money management? Just a few – Monopoly, Payday, and Life. These games offer a great way to teach budgeting in a fun setting, even starting at a very young age.
Use Workbooks
There are all kinds of workbooks out there that can help teach money management and budgeting. Some of these are designed for young kids, while others are perfect for older children and those with developmental disabilities.
Some examples include the Explore Math Series and Life Skills Academics: Math. These can be used at school and at home and focus on budgeting in a fun, applicable way.
Understand Specific Challenges
Budgeting is a tough skill to master for all young people – but especially those with unique learning needs that include some deficits in executive functioning. These deficits can make budgeting a challenge, and often, deficits in social areas cause these individuals to fall victim to Internet scams or other “too good to be true” kinds of deals.
Therefore, budgeting is a specific challenge for many individuals with unique learning needs because they are easily gilded into paying more for items – or buying items they don’t need. Some individuals read ads quite literally, which can cause them to pay more than necessary, too.
When teaching a child with unique learning needs how to budget, it is therefore critical that you consider that child’s particular strengths and weaknesses. Address those as you make a plan.
Rely on Outside Resources
There are plenty of places you can turn to when it comes to helping your student learn how to budget. We’ll go more in-depth with these resources in a later article, but don’t be afraid to do a bit of research to find the tools out there that might work best for your situation.
Some of the best include Mint and Everydollar. Both of these online resources help students learn how to track their expenses and income. Mint, in particular, requires minimal manual input, making it a great choice for students with unique learning needs.
Even if those tools don’t seem to fit the bill, know that there are other simple resources you can tap into to help make budgeting easier. Perhaps your student works best with an Excel spreadsheet, or maybe just keeping cash for separate expenses in different envelopes works best. Whatever the case may be, find the system that works well, and try to stick to it.
Look to Banks for Support
Many – though certainly not all – banks offer budgeting tools that your student can use to begin the budgeting process. Some of these tools are available online so students can utilize them to track their expenses whenever they log into their accounts.
Other banks offer in-person seminars or webinars to help young adults learn more about budgeting. Utilize these whenever possible.
Let Them Experience Trial & Error
It’s never easy to allow a child to fail – particularly if it’s your own child. However, there are some valuable lessons to be learned in failure. When you’re teaching a child how to set and stick to a budget, one of the best ways to impart some wisdom is to let them make mistakes. Don’t be the constant system of checks and balances but allow things to go awry every now and then (within reason, of course).
If you provide your child with an allowance of some sort, don’t jump to replace lost funds if they squander them on something that wasn’t in the budget. Instead, let your child figure out that their decisions have consequences – hopefully, they’ll make better choices next time.
It can be difficult to let failure occur, but trust in the process. Results will eventually come!
Involve the Whole Family in Making a Budget
If you’re teaching any child about budgeting, one of the best things you can do is to involve them in family financial planning. Sit down together and create a detailed budget, making sure you explain all of the steps and variables involved as you go.
If you’re an educator, this activity is not off the table, either. You can complete this activity with your student or send it home to be completed (with the parent’s permission, of course). Just keep in mind that if you aren’t using concrete numbers and information with the child (and are having them making up budget numbers as an example) they might have a harder time grasping what it is you are trying to teach.
Show Your Support and Be Consistent
Whether you are beginning to teach budgeting to a six-year-old or a sixteen-year-old, it’s important that you show your support as well as possible. Learning how to become an effective budgeter doesn’t happen overnight – after all, there are likely still areas in your budget that you struggle with!
However, being consistent and starting as early as possible is key to producing a young adult who is independent, financially literate, and ready to tackle the challenges of the real world. Get your child’s entire team involved. The best way to teach budgeting isn’t as one single “lesson” to be learned but instead, as a piece of the larger puzzle.
Budgeting is a financial literacy topic that should be ingrained in every aspect of daily living, from school to social time. When you are able to teach a child how to set and stick to a budget, he will be all that more prepared for success in independent living.
Start early, practice often, and be consistent! The results will pay off over time.
Further Reading
- University of Maryland: 25 Creative Budgeting Tips
- Beverly Vicker: Social Communication and Language Characteristics Associated with High Functioning, Verbal Children and Adults with ASD