In the military we used to have problems with student instructors who had never actually flown an engine off during their basic course because the QHI would often follow through so closely that the 'hand of God' would check and level at the appropriate point. So we had to build their confidence to do EOLs which often required 'sitting on our hands' so that they knew it really was all theirs. Once that confidence boundary was crossed the improvement was exponential.
As to distracting students, there is a school of thought that the left and right hemispheres of the brain are good at different things and that hovering is actually best done by the right (creative) side rather than the left (logical) side since things happen too quickly to rationalise them in the hover. 'Use the force luke', so talking to the student can engage the left side and free up the right side to do the complex stuff.