Improving Independent Purchasing Skills in Postsecondary Students with Disabilities

Postsecondary educational opportunities for transition-age students with disabilities have increased through the creation and expansion of inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE) programs. One of the primary purposes of IPSE programs is to improve their students’ employability and independent daily living skills (Grigal et al., 2019). Having proficient purchasing skills is an important daily living skill that can improve the long-term outcomes of individuals with disabilities.

This dissertation includes three chapters. Chapter One provides an overview of inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE) programs, academic skill level of students with disabilities, the instructional hierarchical model of skill acquisition, previous purchasing skill intervention, use of student response cards during group instruction, and the benefits of student response cards for students with disabilities. Chapter Two details a study in which a researcher-developed, classroom-based purchasing skill intervention was implemented with postsecondary students with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) to teach them the one dollar more strategy when counting money for price values up to $39. The intervention included eight modules with explicit, small-group instruction and learning trials with multiple exemplars using student response cards. Chapter Three discusses the results of the current study which included statistical analyses, intervention teach data, and an overview of individual score changes between the pretest and posttest measures. Chapter Four discusses the implications and limitations of using a classroom-room based purchasing skill intervention to enhance students’ acquisition of the one dollar more strategy to count money. This third chapter also offers considerations for future research endeavors in this area.