Fidget spinners and other gadgets are all of the rage for kids these days, but what purpose are they serving?
Anglophone East School District Education Support Worker Jane Wilson says they can assist a child in helping to calm down the system, “Lots of time, when kids have difficulty with paying attention, they can use different strategies so that the thinking part of the brain has the capacity to pay attention. Different children will react different ways to these types of things. For some, they may end up being more of a distraction, whereas for others, it may be very soothing.”
Wilson says it is a matter of finding the right fidget tool to work for the child.
She says, these types of tools have actually been around for a long time, “They started with autistic groups. Centres developed these types of tools, because they served as a sensory outlet”
They are now more frequently being found in classrooms, and are being used at home as well.
