Graduate students in communicative disorders have found a role model and mentor in a faculty researcher and teacher at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Rodney Gabel, an assistant professor who came to UWSP fresh out of graduate school last January, has inspired his research method students, including Andrea Bolstad of De Forest and Renee Dougherty Schaefer of Reardan, Wash., to become actively involved in doing studies.

Bolstad and Schaefer are two shining examples of graduate students who, through Gabel�s encouragement, have discovered the joys and rewards of doing research. They are currently in the process of compiling survey results and planning to submit their findings to national organizations for publication or presentation.

Bolstad says she and several other students became interested in actively pursuing research because of Gabel�s enthusiasm and the example he set as an active researcher himself. Both Bolstad and Schaefer received backing from the school of communicative disorders as well as funding from the Student Research Fund (SRF) to support their projects.

The SRF provides UWSP students with up to $500 to cover expenses incurred during independent research conducted by a student under faculty guidance. Gabel informed his research methods students about the support available through SRF and encouraged them to apply.

For her project, Bolstad elected to study parental attitudes, both positive and negative, toward stuttering. She has disseminated a 45-question survey to 300 speech and language therapists across the country, asking the therapists to distribute the surveys to parents of children who stutter. The survey instrument also includes four open-ended questions dealing with the benefits of therapy and concerns parents may have for their children who stutter. Bolstad, who hopes to work with young children in a clinical setting, says she�s pleased to see the preliminary responses indicate few negative parental attitudes and many positive reactions to the benefits of therapy.

In checking professional journals, Schaefer found little information about selective mutism and its treatment protocols. She hopes her findings will add to knowledge about the disorder and its underlying causes and its treatments. Schaefer�s survey asks therapists about their experiences in evaluating and treating mutism as well as whether the treatment was conducted in collaboration with mental health professionals. It is the supposition of both Gabel and Schaefer that speech and language issues such as stuttering, articulation problems and language difficulties may have a vital role in causing children to choose to be silent.

In addition to her studies, Schaefer works part time at the Wal-Mart Photo Lab and has volunteered with Special Olympics and Big Brothers Big Sisters bowling. Bolstad, who is a graduate assistant in the department, also has been a Special Olympics volunteer. She studied for a semester in London through UWSP�s International Programs and graduated with honors from UWSP last spring. Both students plan to submit their results to professional journals and conferences.

Gabel, a native of Tiffin, Ohio, holds bachelor�s and master�s degrees from Bowling Green State University and a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University where he conducted research on attitudes toward occupational choices for people who stutter. His current research interests involve the psychosocial and handicapping aspects of stuttering and its treatment.

At UWSP Gabel teaches courses in stuttering, anatomy and physiology, and research methods, as well as supervising graduate students in the UWSP Speech and Hearing Clinic. He is among the first group of therapists in the country to be certified by ASHA to treat individuals with fluency disorders. He has presented papers at national and international conferences and has published research articles dealing with stuttering and other fluency disorders.

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