Correction: Global TALES feasibility study: Personal narratives in 10-year-old children around the world.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273114.].

Global TALES feasibility study: Personal narratives in 10-year-old children around the world.

Personal narratives make up more than half of children's conversations. The ability to share personal narratives helps build and maintain friendships, promotes physical and emotional wellbeing, supports classroom participation, and underpins academic success and vocational outcomes. Although personal narratives are a universal discourse genre, cross-cultural and cross-linguistic research into children's ability to share personal narratives is in its infancy. The current study addresses this gap in the research by developing the Global TALES protocol, a protocol comprising six scripted prompts for eliciting personal narratives in school-age children (excited, worried, annoyed, proud, problem situation, something important). We evaluated its feasibility with 249 ten-year-old children from 10 different countries, speaking 8 different languages, and analyzed researchers' views on the process of adapting the protocol for use in their own country/language. At group-level, the protocol elicited discourse samples from all children, although individual variability was evident, with most children providing responses to all six prompts. When investigating the topics of children's personal narratives in response to the prompts, we found that children from around the world share many commonalities regarding topics of conversation. Once again individual variability was high, indicating the protocol is effective in prompting children to share their past personal experiences without forcing them to focus on one particular topic. Feedback from the participating researchers on the use of the protocol in their own countries was generally positive, although several translation issues were noted. Based on our results, we now invite clinical researchers from around the world to join us in conducting further research into this important area of practice to obtain a better understanding of the development of personal narratives from children across different languages and cultures and to begin to establish local benchmarks of performance.

Competence-based curricula for the education of speech-language pathologists and audiologists in Brazil.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to present the academic requirements for the education of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and to discuss some of the challenges in providing quality supervised practice and the solutions proposed by some programs in Brazil. METHODS: Brazilian proposals regarding the training of SLPs are reviewed, with guidelines provided by the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP) and the Comité Permanent de Liaison des Orthophonistes-Logopèdes de l'UE (CPLOL), and descriptions of the specific experience of the oldest Brazilian program are provided. RESULTS: The bachelor's degree is the minimum level required for the independent practice of speech-language pathology and audiology in Brazil, where there are 75 undergraduate programs. In several programs, students are encouraged to enjoy the diversity at their university, enrolling in courses of different areas to broaden their experience. The basic areas of the undergraduate program are mandatory as per recommendation of the Ministry of Education and include competences related to the health system, decision making, communication, leadership and continued education. Since practice training is part of the undergraduate programs, it is incorporated into the pedagogical concept and has a major role in it. CONCLUSION: The structure of the programs allows the dissociation of theory from practice to be attenuated; both educational strategies are used together as part of the pedagogical concept.

Implications of the World Report on Disability for responding to communication disorders in Brazil.

The World Report on Disability has resulted in major shifts in healthcare policy in different national scenarios. The current paper seeks to elucidate some of the changes regarding communication sciences and disorders with the ultimate goal of improved service delivery for persons with communication disabilities in Brazil. The inherent national diversity presents major challenges to both planning and service delivery. The task of identifying under-served populations and the specific barriers to access to services and resources is not straightforward, particularly given that 200 million people reside in an area of over 8.5 million km(2). To address this need, changes have already been implemented, namely increased participation of professional and scientific associations related to communication sciences and disorders. Wylie, McAllister, Davidson, and Marshall (2013) offered a provocative analysis in their recent paper and their positions are further discussed within the current document. The bio-psycho-social model of disability should be the foundation for both public agencies and the academy to enhance this area of concern in research, professional training, and service delivery. The real challenge seems to be providing services with the appropriate level of complexity and specialization required for each unique scenario.

Emerging issues concerning the education of speech and language pathologists and audiologists in Brazil and South America.

Diversity is one of the major characteristics of Brazil and all South America. This paper presents an overview of the current situation of the education of speech and language pathologists (SLP) and audiologists in Brazil and in several other countries of South America. This paper also discusses the main challenges shared by these countries. The discussion is focused on the mutual interferences between education and the areas of professional practice, cultural diversity and continued education. There are many emerging issues about the education of SLP and audiologists in South America. The suggested conclusion is that, despite the many differences, the South American SLP and audiologists' education would benefit from joint efforts and collaborative experiences.