You may recognise this version of events. Your child is quietly having a go at something. Then you come over, or say well done, or ask them to do it again so you can see, and the whole thing stops.
The useful move may not be more encouragement. Try taking the audience out of the situation, handing the thing back to the child and letting the next step happen privately or by accident. Encouraging harder can make the watching more obvious, even when your intention is simply to help.
What it can look like
The pattern is not always dramatic. It might be a child who goes quiet, changes what they are doing, does it deliberately wrongly, or suddenly wants you to do it for them. It might be that something is going fine until you narrate it, and then it is over.
It may also be inconsistent. The same child might be happy to be watched doing one thing and not another, or happy on Tuesday and not on Thursday. You do not need to solve that inconsistency before deciding what to try next.
Encouragement still adds attention
This is the part that can catch a parent out. Praise, commentary and a warm well done are all forms of attention, and attention is the thing that has just changed.
It does not mean you should withhold warmth or interest. It does mean that when a child has just stopped, adding more encouragement may add to the feeling of being watched rather than remove it.
Saying less, at least while they are in the middle of it, is a reasonable place to start.
Give yourself something to do
One way to stop being an audience is to be genuinely busy. Not pretending to be busy while glancing over, but actually doing something with your own hands nearby.
Fold something. Chop something. Sit down with your own bit of paper. You stay in the room and keep them company, while putting less attention on what they are doing.
If it helps, you can tell PLAI™ what the moment actually looks like, including that being watched can stop things, and ask for something the two of you can do side by side rather than face to face.
Hand the ownership over
Demonstrating can create another flashpoint. Showing a child how a thing is properly done can turn their version into a comparison, and a comparison can feel like another kind of audience.
Where you can, set the materials out and leave the method open. Do not announce it. Do not ask whether they want to. Something on the table with no instructions attached gives them the option to pick it up without committing to a performance.
If they ask you to do it for them, you can do one small part and leave the rest unfinished. They may take it back, or they may not. Either outcome is fine.
Skip the requests to perform
Show grandma. Do it again so I can film it. Tell daddy what you made. These are all understandable requests, and they all ask for a repeat performance. That is a different task from whatever the child was doing the first time.
If the moment matters to you, consider letting it pass without asking for a repeat, or let the child bring it to you in their own time. It leaves the timing and the decision with them.
What not to read into it
It is tempting to work out what this means about a child, but you do not need a label before you respond to what is happening.
What is worth noticing is the practical shape of it: when it happens, what seems to make it more likely, and which activities are unaffected. That is information you can use the next time the same moment appears.
And on the days when nothing works and they will not do it whether you are watching or not, that is allowed too. Not every attempt needs to end in the thing getting done.