The concept of money can be too abstract for students with ASD to fully grasp. Therefore, it might be necessary to teach students a simpler and meaningful way to use money in order to promote independence.

This task allows students to practice simple money math with items from McDonald’s restaurant. Three options are provided: 2 dollars, 5 dollars and 10 dollars. For each bill, a student is expected to pick items from the mock menu that can be purchased for that amount of money. For example, for 2 dollars, the student may choose a coffee and a muffin or a soft drink.

Materials:

• Visual template and menu items
• Zip lock bag

Setup:

• Print and laminate the template and different food items
• Put Velcro on the squares of the template and the menu items

Tips:

• The student needs to be able to do addition and estimation
• Alternatively, you could teach your student to memorize which items can be bought given each amount of money