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I was asked to be on a radio interview this a.m. to talk about the fad toy, the fidget spinner. Kids love them. Some teachers want to ban them from the classroom because they are distracting.<\/p>\nI was asked to be on a radio interview this a.m. to talk about the fad toy, the fidget spinner. Kids love them. Some teachers want to ban them from the classroom because they are distracting.<\/p>\n
The question is, “Does the fidget spinner help\u00a0kids who are fidgety?” I’ve heard all kinds of answers–everything\u00a0from it helps children\u00a0with\u00a0ADHD, PTSD and anxiety. But is there science behind these claims? Or, are we hearing anecdotes from parents?<\/p>\n
Before we get to the science, the fidget spinner has an interesting history. It was not developed by a behaviorist or neuroscientist,\u00a0or even an innovative lab team. According to Time Magazine, it was created by a woman named Catherine Hettinger, who had the idea that the spinner might help children calm down in unsettled environments\u00a0like the middle east. She imagined it to be an alternative to kids throwing rocks at police, maybe even a way to promote world peace. But toy companies did not catch her\u00a0vision and the toy\u00a0did not become a sensation until now.<\/p>\n
Teachers will tell you that the fidget spinners\u00a0make a low noise. But when you get a bunch of kids spinning them in a room, they can be distracting.\u00a0More important, Duke University clinical psychologist and professor, Scott Kollins, tells us that there is no evidence to support the\u00a0claim that this tiny gadget helps children focus.<\/p>\n
One of the possible suggested application of spinners is with\u00a0kids with autism. But\u00a0Dr. Pilar Trelles, a psychiatrist and autism expert at Mount Sinai Health System in New York gives these cautions: 1) \u00a0“For children who have high arousal, this could cause them to be overstimulated and hyperactive.\u201d 2) Kids with neurodevelopment disorders could become preoccupied with the device. 3) Because these devices involve repetitive firing of the body’s visual\u00a0system, there is some concern about children being triggered with seizure disorders.<\/p>\n
Kids with ADHD also use fidgeting\u00a0as a coping mechanism. The thinking is that\u00a0fidgeting may help an ADHD \u00a0child’s working memory\u00a0in\u00a0that movement may stimulate under active parts of the brain (e.g.,\u00a0dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) involved in attention, planning and\u00a0impulse control. However, the fidget spinner is much less of a physical activity\u00a0than a child fidgeting, so it doesn’t give the same benefit as the child actually moving his or her body.<\/p>\n
Bottom line,\u00a0we don’t have evidence for real benefit of this toy at this time.\u00a0Like most fad toys, the fidget spinner\u00a0will probably come and go and eventually be relegated to join the bin of\u00a0other fad toys. Better to engage in active play–dig in the sand, run, play tag and work off that extra energy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was asked to be on a radio interview this a.m. to talk about the fad toy, the fidget spinner. Kids love them. Some teachers want to ban them from the classroom because they are distracting. The question is, “Does the fidget spinner help\u00a0kids who are fidgety?” I’ve heard all kinds of answers–everything\u00a0from it helps…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[914],"tags":[3797,3798,3796,3799],"class_list":["post-9232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-relationships-2","tag-adhd-help","tag-autism-help","tag-fidget-spinner","tag-toys-and-mental-health"],"yoast_head":"\n