Imagine being wrapped in a shower curtain and tossed over the shoulder of a firefighter.
You’re soaking wet. You can’t clearly see what’s happening. You can’t clearly hear what people are saying. And you have no idea why a firefighter just came into the bathroom and carried you out of the shower.
That happened to a friend of mine in college.
She was hard of hearing and had low vision. When she showered, she left her hearing aids in her room to protect them from moisture, just as she had been taught to do. Her glasses were tucked safely in her shower caddy with her clothes just outside the shower stall.
What she didn’t know was that the fire alarm had gone off.
She couldn’t clearly see the flashing alarm through the thick privacy shower curtain. She didn’t hear the firefighter calling to her at all. From his perspective, there was a person in the building who wasn’t responding during a fire alarm. So he did his job. He got her out.
My friend was safe, embarrassed, and more than a little mad.
Here’s the important part: my friend had skills.
She was attending college, living away from home, and responsibly managing her equipment in the way she had been taught. But there was still a disability-specific functional need no one had considered until it became a problem.
What Does Functional Performance Look Like for a Deaf or Hard of Hearing Student?
When educators hear functional skills, they may first think about toileting, dressing, feeding, or other daily living skills. Those are certainly functional skills, but functional needs can look very different for a student who is deaf or hard of hearing.
When we talk about functional needs for deaf and hard of hearing students during an IEP meeting, that is the part we don’t want to miss.
IDEA requires an IEP to include a student’s present levels of both academic achievement and functional performance. When developing the IEP, the team must consider the student’s academic, developmental, and functional needs. For a student who is deaf or hard of hearing, IDEA also specifically requires the team to consider language and communication needs, academic level, and the student’s full range of needs.
Academic progress matters. Good grades, completed assignments, and successful participation in general education are all things we want to see. They just don’t tell us everything.
A student may be academically successful while still needing to recognize communication breakdowns, manage hearing technology, explain communication needs, access emergency information, or solve a problem when their usual communication method isn’t working.
Academic success doesn’t make those needs disappear. Sometimes it just makes them easier to overlook.
Are We Teaching the DHH Part of the Skill?
Many functional skills for DHH students are the same skills we already teach their peers.
We teach young children their names and addresses, how to get help, and how to call 911. But what does getting help look like for a young deaf child who communicates using ASL? As that child grows, when is it appropriate to teach the emergency communication options they will actually use, such as Video Relay Service?
We prepare teenagers to drive and talk about accidents and traffic stops. What does a traffic stop look like for a hard-of-hearing teenager who may not hear an officer giving directions from behind the vehicle or alongside noisy traffic? Does the student know how to explain what they need to communicate effectively?
Fire safety gives us another example. A student may understand what a fire alarm means and know where to evacuate. But did they independently access the alert, or did they know it was time to leave because everyone else started moving?
The functional skill may be the same. The access piece may be different.
What Does the Student Need Now, Next, and Later?
Recognizing functional needs does not mean every DHH student needs a long list of additional IEP goals. Needs are individual, and they change as students grow.
A young child may need to recognize when they didn’t hear something, ask for help, understand what their hearing equipment does, or recognize an accessible emergency alert.
As students grow, they can take on more responsibility. They may learn to identify communication breakdowns, choose a repair strategy, explain their hearing needs, troubleshoot basic technology problems, or manage more of their own equipment.
Later, new situations become relevant: driving, employment, college, communicating with first responders, and living away from home. Older students may also need to learn about planning for the cost of hearing equipment, planning for additional medical or audiological care related to their hearing needs, and arranging their own access and accommodations.
We don’t need to teach a seven-year-old everything they may need at 17.
Not needed yet is not the same as not needed at all.
Thinking about now, next, and later helps the IEP team prioritize what the student needs today while preparing for increasing independence.
Who Teaches the DHH-Specific Part?
As students grow, responsibility for managing hearing loss should increasingly shift from adults to the student.
When a child is young, adults may check hearing technology, make sure access is available, notice communication breakdowns, and step in when something isn’t working. Eventually, we want the student doing more of that themselves.
But independence doesn’t arrive automatically with age. It grows as responsibility is deliberately transferred from adults to the student.
General education teachers play an important role in teaching age-appropriate safety, independence, and life skills. But we cannot expect every classroom teacher to have specialized knowledge of hearing technology, communication access, or the less obvious ways hearing loss can affect everyday situations.
That is where Teachers of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and other DHH professionals can provide specialized instruction, with those skills then practiced across settings.
The goal isn’t for the DHH professional to manage access forever. The goal is to help transfer that knowledge to the student.
Where Do We Find the Time?
There are only so many minutes in a school day. Teachers and service providers are already balancing academics, IEP goals, related services, testing, schedules, and many other demands.
We cannot create a lesson for every situation a DHH student might encounter, and we don’t need to.
Some skills need direct instruction. Others can be taught through situations already happening. A fire drill can reveal whether a student independently accessed the alert. A problem with hearing technology can become an opportunity for an older student to troubleshoot instead of immediately handing it to an adult. Transition planning can bring in the skills needed for college, work, and life away from school.
We cannot predict every situation a student will encounter. What we can do is build the skills students need to solve more of those problems for themselves.
Look Beyond the Grades
A DHH student doing well academically is something to celebrate. It shouldn’t automatically end the conversation about functional needs.
Instead, ask one more question:
Does hearing loss change how this student needs to learn, access, or perform the ordinary skills expected at this age?
We don’t have to prepare a student for every situation they might encounter someday. We can identify what they need to manage now, what responsibility they are ready to take on next, and what skills will become important later.
Because the goal isn’t simply to prepare a student for the next grade.
It’s to prepare them to increasingly manage their own hearing needs and access as they move toward adulthood.
If your team is considering the functional needs of a student who is deaf or hard of hearing, Equalize Sensory Services can help. Contact us to learn more about DHH services and support for students and school teams.