ADHD For Kids: 6 Steps In Managing Their Money
Many parents report that money is a good motivator for their children with ADHD. It is important, then, to emphasize financial responsibility and to help your child learn money management skills.
How ADHD Undermines Money Management
Most of what we know about the interaction between ADHD and money comes from mistakes that adults with ADHD have made, because no research has been done on the way in which children with ADHD understand money. ADHD interferes with money management in a variety of ways, including:
• Difficulty planning a budget and sticking to it
• Disorganized records Impulsive spending
• Difficulty planning for savings
• Difficulty tracking account balances Losing checks or bills
• Procrastinating on bills or taxes
• Forgetting when bills are due
Sound familiar? For children with ADHD, the same challenges they face with remembering to do and turn in homework can become the challenges they face later with money management.
Children With ADHD Value Money
By the time children are 7 or 8, whether they have ADHD or not, they have a pretty good understanding of what money can do for them, says Gregor Kohls, MA, an ADHD researcher at the Center for Autism Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Kohls and his colleagues have studied the use of money as a way to help children with ADHD learn appropriate behaviors. In his research, he found that parents of children with ADHD frequently rely on money as a reward.
Teaching Money Management
."In his research, he found that parents of children with ADHD frequently rely on money as a reward."...But as with all children, parents must teach money management to children with ADHD. Here are some tips and ideas:"...