unsurprisingly, scientists say those claims may be overstated.
"Using a gadget like a spinner is more likely to be a distraction than beneficial for individuals with ADHD," said Mark Rapport, a clinical psychologist at the University of Central Florida who has studied the benefits of distraction on the attention span of people with ADHD.
The scientists at
decided to find out if there was any basis for these claims made by the manufacturer. In a review of the relevant literature published on July 7, 2017, scientists including Dr. Ruth Milanaik, director of the neonatal follow-up program at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New York, found in the journal Current Opinion in Pediatrics that no studies have focused specifically on the link between these spinners and children's attention. Not only that, they say, but there hasn't been any peer-reviewed research on fidget spinners. The authors conclude that due to the lack of research, manufacturers' claims about the usefulness of fidget spinners are unfounded.
(The so-called fidget cube, a plastic cube with various buttons and paddles for fidgeting with the hand) may be better suited for classroom use, according to a scientist who studies the intersection of human-computer interaction and gaming, who points out on his Web site that the cube does not require visual attention." Kathryn Isbister, a professor of computational media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, wrote in the conversation:
Could serve the same purpose as spinners but are better suited for classroom instruction and less distracting, experts tell Live Science that fidget spinners have sparked a conversation about the breadth of a child's attention span and how to help kids focus. For example, one expert said that while there isn't a lot of data to support the idea that kids are less attentive now than they were in the past, some studies do show that as multitasking increases in the digital age, attention span decreases. Psychologists say there are a variety of ways to get kids to refocus on the lesson at hand, including fidget devices, breaks between activities and simply eliminating extra distractions. (These devices can also teach kids something about physics, or at least ball bearings.)
It's a trend that emerged this spring with theFidget spinner, which seems to have sprung from nowhere as a must-have gadget. Until December 2016, the "fundamentals" of Google search were essentially non-existent. Now, teachers are tweeting their frustrations with spinner-obsessed students, and the toys even have their own forum on Reddit.
"I'll call you 'obnoxious Spinny things' and you'll live in my desk drawer," Kansas Spanish teacher Amanda Dickey tweeted using the word "fidgetspinner" and "teacherprobs" to punctuate her message. [How to Time Out: 12 Science Tips]
Most of the controversy surrounding fidget spinners is about schools banning them from classrooms. Kate Ellison, an elementary school principal in Evanston, Illinois, told the Chicago Tribune that spinners have been a distraction in her school's classroom, and that there are other school-appropriate annoyance options for kids with special needs. Meanwhile, some parents of children with special needs have welcomed the benefits of the toys. One parent of an 8-year-old with autism wrote on her blog that her daughter was thrilled to see her classmates trying to fidget like her. School-approved fidget devices set her daughter apart, Miriam Gwynne wrote, but fidget spinners are cool.
For her, the fidget spinner isn't a necessity like her friends, but more of a stress release from the demands of her school day, like when she uses a stress ball or a twist lock block When schools decide to ban sensory and fidget toys, they risk isolating the child, and they spend years trying to include them, even in England! Across the pond in Manchester,
At least one expert is disappointed with the ban Claire Heffron, a pediatric occupational therapist in Cleveland, said, "These gadgets should be called fidget tools, not toys, and if presented as a normal part of classroom culture, they can be part of a successful strategy for managing fidgety behavior." , according to the news report, Teachers say most children use spinners as toys, focusing on them rather than the classroom There is no doubt that toys that make children fidget can help children with autism. Occupational therapists often use sensory toys such as tactile disks, cool balls, and even putty or clay to calm children with sensory processing problems. Similarly, research suggests that exercise can help children with ADHD focus.A 2015 study published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology by Rapple and his colleagues studied children with ADHD between the ages of 8 and 12. The researchers found that those who engaged in gross motor activity (i.e., the movement of limbs or large portions of the body) performed better than those who sat quietly during tasks involving working memory (a type of memory used to process incoming information). Exercise has also been shown to help children with ADHD, Raber told Live Science magazine.
, but without studies that look specifically at fidget spinners, it's impossible to say for sure whether these devices can help children with ADHD. He guesses it's unlikely that these small handheld toys will help. They don't require whole-body movement, which seems to be what leads to increased activity in the frontal and prefrontal brain regions that are responsible for maintaining attention, he said. "Spinners are also visually distracting, so they can take a child's attention away from the chalkboard or the teacher," Raber said,
"as opposed to reading a book while riding a stationary bike or working at a desk while sitting on an exercise ball. "Allowing small (non-distracting) movements may prove beneficial for many children with ADHD," Raber wrote in an email to Live Science.
Spinners SafeA June unofficial report on possible lead levels in these toys may worry parents, but it's not clear if you have spinners in your home. Tamara Rubin, a lead-poisoning-prevention advocate who is not affiliated with any university or research organization, tested 11 fidget spinners at home and found unusually high levels of lead in two of them. Even so, Rubin's findings were not replicated or peer-reviewed; Rubin only tested 11 spinners. You can read more about the possible leads in fidget spinners in this Live Science article.
A bigger concern may be the risk of kids choking on some of the small parts of the spinners. U.S. Consumer Products