What a great idea to have a discussion with your assistant that your patient could overhear! That makes me think of Irene Pepperberg’s “Alex and Me” and the learning technique she used with her brilliant friend, an African Grey parrot named Alex. She and a colleague would demonstrate/discuss what they wanted Alex to learn, and he would pick it up naturally—just like children learn grammar and parts of speech by watching and listening to the adults around them.
Because you weren’t addressing the patient directly, he didn’t have to go on the defensive but was instead just curiously eavesdropping. You and your assistant just may have saved his life!
What a great idea to have a discussion with your assistant that your patient could overhear! That makes me think of Irene Pepperberg’s “Alex and Me” and the learning technique she used with her brilliant friend, an African Grey parrot named Alex. She and a colleague would demonstrate/discuss what they wanted Alex to learn, and he would pick it up naturally—just like children learn grammar and parts of speech by watching and listening to the adults around them.
Because you weren’t addressing the patient directly, he didn’t have to go on the defensive but was instead just curiously eavesdropping. You and your assistant just may have saved his life!