FTCE Deaf or Hard of Hearing K–12: specialist foundations cheat sheet

Separate content goals from language and participation demands.

Sequence visual attention and make peer contributions accessible.

Interpreting facilitates communication; teachers retain instructional responsibility.

Check comprehension in an accessible language rather than equating quiet attention with understanding.

Use present-level evidence, measurable goals, services and progress monitoring.

Consider direct communication and direct instruction as well as interpreted access.

Verify Florida-specific procedures rather than importing another state timeline.

Keep family and student participation accessible throughout planning and review.

An audiogram does not measure intelligence or percentage of language understood.

Technology and acoustics jointly affect functional access.

Only trained, authorized equipment routines belong in classroom troubleshooting.

A hearing screening is not a complete diagnostic assessment.

Identify the construct before selecting assessment accommodations.

Use multiple valid measures and competent language assessment.

Interpret content knowledge separately from barriers in English expression.

Report the access conditions under which each score or observation was obtained.

Distinguish educational eligibility, audiological description and cultural identity.

Study historical choices without imposing one approach on every learner.

Clarify professional roles and respect confidential records.

Maintain high expectations while recognizing varied language and educational histories.

ASL, manually coded English and cued speech are different systems.

Evaluate actual access rather than the visible presence of a method.

Written practice cannot certify direct communication or interpreting competence.

Speechreading and captions require individualized evaluation rather than assumed universal effectiveness.

ASL is a natural language rather than English in signs.

Respect individual identity, language variation and actual family access.

Include meaningful community contact and direct peer communication.

English gloss labels do not fully encode a signed language.

Do not infer a fixed literacy ceiling from hearing status.

Link meaningful language, vocabulary and print through explicit instruction.

Teach English writing while recognizing ASL as an independent language.

Separate content understanding from the English forms needed to express it.