Child's behaviuor - Is this unusual or not

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Will a SEN child behaved better if they are aware that they are been monitored by external services - eg behaviour assessor, Ed psych etc at school. on both occasions they sat either next to him or a couple of chairs away but he was aware.

My DC ( 10yrs) SENCO thinks he is just palaying up if he does this.

DC has mentioned that they are there to watch him and hence he is more observant of what these are doing - so pays more attention to these people and less of the disruptions - it has happened twice consecutively. What do you all think?
Will his awareness of their presence make him exhibit a different behaviour in the classroom

Anybody would behave differently if they know someone's there to watch them, I know I do when I'm being observed even when I'm trying not to

This is tricky. I have begged the Ed Pysch in to observe a pupil in the past and the pupil has then been on their 'best behaviour', grrrr...... Very rarely do the EPs turn up and the child has been really showing what they can do!!

IME any extra adult in the room will change the dynamics and child will exhibit different behaviour. Most EPs allow for this though. They will speak to the class teacher to establish whether the behaviour they observe is usual or not.

When the autism team went into assess DS he had no idea they were there to assess him. They went to every effort to make sure he didn't know. Even in the playground they would talk to other pupils whilst actually observing DS.

I agree that a child will be on his best behaviour if he thinks someone is watching him (or equally might behave worse if wanting to provoke a reaction!!). At 10yrs your DS is probably pretty aware of what's happening. My DS2 was observed at school but it was by a member of the team he hadn't met before, and like LittleMissGreen said, the person talked to others etc. I think they were introduced as being a student teacher/someone who was interested in teaching or something so no-one suspected. Also he was only 5.5 at the time so I don't think he would have thought anything of it. DS2 has terrible tantrums at home but is very well behaved at school, he always says "I know I'll get in more trouble if I'm naughty at school"!! So he can definitely moderate his behaviour.

Children often do this. My favourite was when a boy assumed that the Ed Psych was there to observe him and put on an extra good show specially. Shame she was there for someone else!

yes they may well make a special effort to control their behaviour for that short time. Letting them know that they're being observed is a bit really.

someone on here a while back dont remember who said there ds put on a show by heck he pulled his pants down and mooned her lol thought was absolutely brill wish i was brave enough to do that

I told ds that when there are people in their class 'watching' what's going on, they are from OFSTED and are there to check the on the teachers and school.

If I know someone is going in to observe him I tend to say something like "I hear OFSTED are in your school again this week?"

Everyone who's been in to observe him - and there have been A LOT - says they have been able to clearly see his difficulties.

Fortunately, having been inspected fairly recently, ds just accepts classroom observations as part of school life now.

well, i guess he is now clued on at 10 years of age - out on good behaviour - but not help when our independent ed psych went in though - fantastic behaviour - well might now depend on what was documented or SENCO and teachers input, apart from the assessment that is. Now we have to complete a behavioural sheet. Thanks all. at least I understand this much clearer.