Taking the mystery out of stuttering

At one point in the movie, "The King’s Speech," actor Colin Firth, portraying England’s King
George VI, shouts, "I stammer, and no one can fix it!"
Bowling Green State University’s Dr. Rodney Gabel may have experienced the same frustration as a child
who stuttered quite severely.
But his journey to more fluent speech as a young person did not involve tongue exercises, reciting
limericks and jumping up and down as those experienced by the beloved World War II-era king. Instead, he
received help at BGSU which eventually led him to become a student there, and later join its faculty as
an associate professor in Communication Sciences and Disorders.
Aware that stuttering has not received a lot of coverage in the popular media, other than Porky Pig in
the distant past, Gabel is delighted with the quality of "The King’s Speech." Not only is it
nominated for 12 Academy Awards, but it already has 16 wins and 73 nominations from other honor guilds
around the globe.
"What’s great about ‘The King’s Speech,’ is, they nailed it," praised Gabel. "Colin Firth
did a great job with the behavior of stuttering, the emotional upheaval, the conflict people go through
with their problems. It is a physiological problem with a genetic basis. Once you’ve lived that long
with the problem, you develop bad feelings, having to struggle that hard, and people having trouble
hearing you speak. …
"How they portrayed that upheaval was so well done, so well acted, so well written. It’s done a real
service for people who stutter."
But it can also be said of Gabel himself that he is doing a real service for those same people.
A certified and licensed speech-language pathologist and a board recognized specialist in fluency and
fluency disorders, he is director of BGSU’s Services for People who Stutter program. Considered a
premier program in a multi-state region, it is offered through BGSU’s Speech and Hearing Clinic and the
Department of Communication Disorders.
The program offers a two-day intensive clinic to help children, adolescents and adults who stutter learn
techniques to help them deal effectively with the disorder in their daily lives.
Even more intensive is a 15-day clinic for adolescents and adults, held some summers at BGSU.
Participants stay on the campus and receive 75 or more hours of formal treatment to help them modify
their stuttering and change their negative emotional reactions and feelings related to speech.
"We’re probably the only place that offers intensive residential therapy," Gabel said, adding,
"We offer a lot of traditional therapy models with specialists in stuttering. There are a couple on
the faculty that primarily work with stuttering, so we have a lot of services for people who
stutter."
In addition, the program offers follow-up, nonintensive therapy which may include teleconferencing for
people who live a distance away.
Current literature on stuttering, he noted, points to a prevalence of 0.7 to 1 percent of the population
in the U.S. and worldwide having the disorder. Gabel said stuttering starts when a child is 2 to 5 years
old, with about 80 percent of them recovering without any treatment; a spontaneous recovery.
"Folks like myself and adults who take the intensive (training) are part of the 0.7 percent. It
seems like a small percentage of people. … Those of us who continue to stutter, a lot can be done to
overcome the problem."
Research into the causes of stuttering include a genetic link, with good evidence identifying a
chromosome or gene transmitting the disorder, as well as brain scans showing "some sort of
disruption" while people are stuttering. The auditory system, muscle activity, anxiety and
environment are also involved.
In spite of a very supportive environment, Gabel admits his was a "very difficult youth" as a
stutterer, "not knowing if you can get a word out," when school and social relationships are
based on being able to speak smoothly. Yet he knows he was "fairly lucky" to attend K-12 in a
small Ohio school district where he played sports and was active in student government.
"I just sort of managed it and survived – which is what people do."
A speech therapist in the junior and senior high referred Gabel and his family to BGSU’s programming for
stutterers, which was the start of his ongoing relationship with the university.
Today, through his teaching, research and clinical services, Gabel finds it gratifying to help others who
stutter – some of whom later enter BGSU to get a master’s degree or doctorate in the field themselves.

Information on BGSU’s Services for People who Stutter Program can be found at
http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/cdis/page 36192.html. or call (419) 372-2515.