Why does this EXTREMELY outgoing, misbehaving 7 year old become quiet, shy and sweet when its' just us?

Question

I teach Sunday school at an inner city church. Though I have a variety of personalities in my class, they all have one thing in common -- they LOVE one on one time with the teacher, especially the ones who misbehave.

If I allow them to come into the room a few minutes early and just talk to me, even the ones who are shy and quiet in class, will talk a mile a minute.

EXCEPT one girl. This child misbehaves on a regular basis, does not follow the rules, sucks her teeth and rolls her eyes at me and other kids and is extremely outspoken.

You can imagine my surprise during our one-on-one time when she acted really shy, quiet and sweet. She was like a completely different kid.

I kept trying to get her to talk, but she acted extremely bashful, but was smiling

Answer 1

shes a attention seeker

she doesnt have to fight for your attention when its one-on-one time

Answer 2

maybe she has never had one on one attention, acting out may be the only way she is comfortable with attention, keep trying, maybe with a few other kids around, a small group, she may come around.

Answer 3

She acts out for her "audience" (the other children).  Without her audience, she is lost.

Up until now, her reward has been laughter or snickers from the other children.  What you have to do is change her reward.  Reward her for saying something intelligent or doing something thoughtful - and involve the other children (ex. "Wasn't that a great answer, class?").

Answer 4

hmm..i don't know, maybe she realized what a pain she was being or someone must of told her something that made her want to change.  I would say it's a good thing that she's behaving a lot better but you might want to dig in deeper and see what changed her behavior.

Answer 5

I dont know this girl so i dont want to judge but you asked, so maybe she just wants attention from her peers and when she gets alone time with you, she is overwhelmed by the one-on-one attenition that you are automatically giving her.