teaching students to make purchases with a debit card and to track their expenses dawn rowe, m. a....

Teaching Students to Make Purchases with a Debit Card and

To Track Their Expenses

Dawn Rowe, M. A.2011 OAVSNP Conference

February 19th, 2011Best Western Hood River INN

Why is financial planning and money management

important?Many youth, with and without disabilities,

have not acquired the skills to manage their personal finances (e.g., spending and

money management, saving and investing, and the use of credit and debit), skills that will have an enormous impact

on their future economic well-being (McCormick, 2009; Tennyson & Nguyen,

2001).

Why is financial planning and money management

important?In the present economy, it is important

that youth possess, at minimum, a basic knowledge of money management skills

including but not limited to banking, finance, savings, and credit (McCormick,

2009).

Outcomes at a Glance

• 57% of individuals with disabilities were employed compared to 66% of youth without disabilities.

• 75% of youth with disabilities are living with their parents, relatives, or legal guardians compared to 72% of youth without disabilities.

(Newman et al., 2009)

Outcomes at a Glance• 60.2% of all youth with disabilities had a

savings account• 56.7% of youth with disabilities has a

checking account and writes checks• 41.7% of youth have a credit card in his or

her own name • 94.9% of youth have an allowance or other

money that he/she can decide how to spend • 19.6% have lost phone service at some time

in the past two years

(NLTS-2, 2009)

So, why is financial planning and money

management important?With knowledge of the struggles students with disabilities face in regards to financial planning and management, it becomes increasing important to teach students skills to adequately manage finances prior to leaving high school

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The Good News• Financial education has

become increasingly emphasized in K-12 education since 1998.

• There has been an increase in the number of states requiring personal finance content standards and course offerings (Council for Economic Education, 2009; Tennyson & Nguyen).

What does the Research Say?• Basic money skills and purchasing are

functional math skills that have been examined extensively (Alcantara, 1994; Ayers, Langone, Boon, & Norman, 2006; Browder & Grasso, 1999; Colyer & Collins, 1996; Haring, Kennedy, Adams, & Pitts-Conway, 1987; Xin, Grasso, Dippi-Hoy, & Jitendra, 2005)

• Previous research has focused heavily on purchasing (Xin, Grasso, Dipipi-Hoy, & Jitendra, 2005), bank interaction (McDonnel & Ferguson, 1989) and using a checking account (Davies, Stock, & Wehmeyer, 2003; LaCampagne, & Cipani, 1987; Zencius, Davis,

& Cuvo, 1990) to teach money management skills.

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What does the Research Say?

• Money management skills have expanded with the use of technology. People are choosing to use debit cards in replace of traditional methods of payment (i.e., cash or writing a check).

• Several studies have examined the effectiveness of different instructional procedures to teach students with disabilities to use a debit card to withdraw money from an ATM (Cihak, Alberto, Kessler,

& Taber, 2004; Cihak, Alberto, Taber-Doughtry, & Gama, 2006), and to use a debit card to purchase two items (Alberto, Cihak, & Gama, 2005; Cihak et al., 2004; Cihak et al., 2006; Mechling, Gast, Barthold, 2003).

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Purpose

To determine the effects of classroom simulation using static picture prompts on

teaching students with disabilities to make a purchase with a debit card and

track their expenses.

Participants

• Tyler was an 18 year old male identified as having a mild intellectual disability

• Christina was an 18 year old female diagnosed with congenital heart disease and Graves disease at the age of nine. She received special education services under the classification of Other Health Impaired

• Chip was a 16 year old male diagnosed with a severe seizure disorder. He received special education services under the classification of Other Health Impaired.

Setting

• Rural high school in the southeastern United States

• Special Education Classroom

• Teacher work room

• Community

Setting cont. The community sites were:

Materials

Debit card machineDebit card

Checkbook and registerCalculator

PenProbe scripts

Instructional task analysis stepsPrompt Cards

Dependent Variable

Total number of steps correct on task analysis

Experimental Design

Multiple probe across participants design (Cooper et al., 2007)

• Baseline: Students were given the materials needed to complete the tasks prior to beginning the trial. The baseline data was administered to all participants over the same time period. The experimenter followed the probe script by instructing the students to complete the task.

InterventionLet me demonstrate!

Generalization

• Generalization data was collected at the community based sites.

• Generalization probes were collected four times during the course of the study (once during baseline, once during intervention, and twice during maintenance).

Procedural Fidelity

• A trained observer viewed and scored the instructional steps administered by the teacher during 94% of the training sessions

• Procedural fidelity was 100% during all phases of the study

ResultsFigure 1. Number of steps correct on a task analysis of making a purchase using a debit card and tracking expenses. Closed circles represent simulated probes and open squares represent generalization probes

Social Validity• Data were collected to assess participants’

opinions about the usefulness of the skills learnedo 3 students felt they had “complete” ability to

use the debit card to make a purchaseo 2 students felt they had “complete” ability to

track expenses (1 student expressed a need for continued practice)

o 3 students felt learning this skill was useful and though they would continue to use the skill in the future

Discussion• All three students were able to successfully generalize

the skill of making a purchase with a debit card to three different community settings and track expenses once they returned to school

• The method of simulation used in this study, proved to be easy to use, cost-efficient, and of high interest to students in the study

• This study also extends the literature by addressing limitations stated in previous studies suggesting that procedures used to teach these skills may be too complex for classroom personnel to use (McDonnell & Ferguson, 1989; Mechling et al., 2003)

• This study examined the effects of the simulation on making purchases with a debit card and tracking one’s expenses

Implications for Practice

• The content taught in this study directly related to the national personal finance content standard of describing how to use different payment methods (CEEC, 2009; Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Finance Literacy, 2007)

• this is an inexpensive teaching strategy using simulated instruction with static picture prompts to provide students with skills necessary to make a purchase using a debit card and track their expenses

• Because of the limited amount of time involved in instruction and the low cost of materials, these lessons could be easily incorporated into any math course

Next Steps• Systematic Replication

of study o Track debits and

depositsoMake decisions about

purchasing based on calculations

• Refine instructional scripts

• Recruit participants with LD, ED, Autism

Contact Information

Dawn A. RoweProject Coordinator

drowe3@uoregon.edu541-346-8412