In recent years, researchers have concentrated their studies on the effects various vocal characteristics have upon listeners. They have found that listeners, to a significant extent, can judge a speaker's age, sex, race, education, status, geographic origin, and emotional disposition. Accepting the fact that patients are more than a collection of symptoms or spinal listings, it behooves every chiropractic doctor to gain as much insight into the patient as possible. Paying attention to such vocal qualities as volume, pitch, rate, and emphasis will often provide this insight. Words spoken slowly and deliberately might be taken to signify anger or excitement.
Frightened patients incline toward halting or quavering speech.
Unless you have a practice in which you move from room to room administering adjustments in near-silence, paralanguage could have considerably more importance than you realize. Fortunately, most doctors in our profession talk to their patients. This trait, in itself, sets us apart from a great many medical physicians. Daily, we stereotype people on the telephone. In all probability, the experienced doctor can usually tell whether regular patients are feeling better or worse just by the sound of their voice.