Principles of Learning

You gear your teaching to the educational, age and social level of the patient. Adults tend you learn better when the teaching includes visuals, so sometimes a demonstration is in order. Also, memory is tied to emotion, so if you make the learning experience pleasant or use some sort of visual or demostration or a simple game that really gets the person's attention, it is likely they will remember it. Repetition is also necessary for a lot of learning. By having the person repeat back in their own words what you have told them it helps them to reinforce what you've taught. There are textbooks on teaching patients that have many of the principals you are looking for in them. What I've written is just what I could remember about the theory of it off the top of my head.