Praxis Special Education: Education of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students Practice Test
This practice page covers educational support for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, with attention to communication access, language and content learning, and participation in school activities. Its sample questions address practical decisions involving hearing technology, spoken and signed communication, accessible media, assessment of listening skills, and preparation for learning beyond the classroom.
Exam overview
About the Praxis Special Education: Education of Deaf and Hard of Hearing St… Exam
The question bank’s scenarios touch on teaching students to manage hearing aids and other personal communication equipment safely, recognize access breakdowns, and advocate for the support they need. Other items consider how teachers connect written English with a student’s signed language, make video dialogue accessible, and coordinate classroom communication when an interpreter is present. Assessment-related examples ask about the purpose of an audiogram, measuring progress in understanding spoken directions, and separating knowledge of academic content from speech production. Planning for activities such as a museum visit also calls for attention to communication access before instruction takes place. Together, these contexts engage decisions about language, instructional access, functional independence, and how to assess a student’s intended skill or knowledge fairly.
Sample Practice Questions
Review a selection from this exam's published US Practice Tests practice bank.
A student who is hard of hearing is learning to monitor and maintain personal communication equipment with increasing independence. Which teaching approach is most appropriate?
Show answer
Correct answer: AA taught routine with guided practice and gradually reduced prompts builds safe, developmentally appropriate independence. Both withholding instruction and expecting unsupported mastery are poor approaches.
A teacher wants to support a student’s understanding of a new topic by connecting written English with a signed language the student knows. Which approach is most appropriate?
Show answer
Correct answer: AExplicitly connecting signs, printed words, and meanings in meaningful contexts can support cross-language learning. The teacher should not assume a simple one-to-one correspondence between languages.
When a teacher presents a video to a class that includes deaf and hard-of-hearing students, which practice best supports access to the video’s dialogue?
Show answer
Correct answer: AAccurate, synchronized captions provide access to dialogue as the video unfolds. A transcript after viewing does not provide equivalent access to the content during the lesson.
A student is learning to independently manage hearing aids during the school day. Which approach best promotes safe and responsible independence?
Show answer
Correct answer: AA practiced routine can build self-advocacy and device-management skills while ensuring appropriate adult support. Students should not be expected to perform repairs, and access to needed assistance should not be delayed or restricted.
A teacher is reviewing a student’s progress in understanding spoken directions. Which measure best helps distinguish improvement in the target skill from changes in task difficulty?
Show answer
Correct answer: AComparable tasks and documentation of conditions and supports make progress data more interpretable. Without consistency or records of changes, it is difficult to tell whether performance reflects growth or different task demands.
A teacher wants to determine whether a student can independently recognize when communication access has broken down. Which activity best assesses this self-advocacy skill?
Show answer
Correct answer: BSelf-advocacy includes noticing a communication barrier and taking an appropriate action, such as requesting repetition, clarification, or a needed support. Vocabulary knowledge or hearing thresholds do not directly show whether the student can use these skills in context.
A student understands a lesson but has difficulty producing clear speech. The learning goal is to assess the student’s knowledge of a history topic. Which approach best separates content knowledge from speech production?
Show answer
Correct answer: AAssessment should measure the intended learning goal. When speech production is not part of that goal, an accessible response mode can let the student demonstrate content knowledge. This preserves the academic target without confusing it with a separate communication skill.
How to use this practice test
Access the free US Practice Tests practice questions and complete a session of up to 20 randomly selected items from the 50-question bank. Review the results after the session to identify which scenarios merit further work, such as equipment independence, communication access, or assessment choices.
Preparation tips
- Practice explaining what an audiogram can show about hearing and how that information informs a student’s educational access needs.
- Compare ways to teach safe, stepwise independence with hearing aids or other personal communication equipment, including how a student can recognize when support is needed.
- For classroom scenarios, identify the communication barriers involved and select supports such as accessible video dialogue, interpreter coordination, or advance planning for off-campus activities.
- When evaluating student progress, distinguish the target skill—such as understanding spoken directions—from changes in task difficulty, and separate subject knowledge from speech production.