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

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.

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.

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.

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.