Understanding of basic financial concepts among adults with mild learning disabilities

Abstract

In the context of recent legal and social policy developments, which encourage clinicians to support vulnerable adults in making their own financial decisions, we explored understanding of basic financial concepts among adults with mild learning disabilities. Using the literature about typically developing children, five measures entailing identification and ordering tasks were devised and were used to examine understanding of quantity, numbers and money among 30 men and women using specialist clinical services (mean FSIQ = 61.80; SD=10.59). The concept of quantity was easier to understand than those of numbers and money, and task difficulties increased with the magnitudes involved. The different types of conceptual understanding were closely related. These measures may be useful for analysing difficulties in, and informing interventions to maximize, independent financial decision making.