Perspectives: Fidget Spinners

P E R S P E C T I V E S

Chances are you’ve seen or heard of the fidget spinner. They’ve become increasingly popular in classrooms around the state and nation. While fidget spinners were originally designed to help students with attention disorders improve concentration they’ve become very popular with all kids, and are now being banned in some schools. We posed the question to two MEA members—Should fidget spinners be allowed in the classroom?

YES

Jill Watson Maranacook Area Schools Association

As a high school special education teacher, I’ve always looked for ways to help my students increase their attention to task, particularly for my students who are easily distracted. The use of fidget tools have helped in the past, and I was eager to try the new fidget spinners to see if they were beneficial. However, it was my advisees who first introduced me to these new spinners. I was intrigued as I watched them use the spinners while doing other activities. Their concentration was improved while simultaneously using the spinners. Many of my students fidget in a variety of ways such as tapping their pencils, clicking their pens repeatedly or drumming their fingers on the table. All of these behaviors can and does interrupt other students and stop any lesson that I may be teaching as I need to address the behaviors. When I address the behaviors, many students are not aware that they are being disruptive. The fidget spinners allow for a way to address the need for those students to manipulate an object but still remain quiet, thus not interrupting the classroom. Using the fidget spinners also allow for the distractible student to focus on the teacher, rather than on needing to touch or move something. In addition, the fidget spinners give sensory input, which is important for students who need help to decrease stress and anxiety. For many students, particularly those with ADHD, they struggle with being able to focus on school work as they have difficulties filtering all the various stimulus they are exposed to on any given minute (think, clocks moving, lights flickering, hum of fans, outside noises or sights, voices in the hallway, other students moving – you get the picture). If you can’t filter any of these distractions, then your anxiety or stress levels would probably go up. Now think, if there’s a quiet little fidget spinner that you could use and feel in your hand, then maybe you could filter other things out in order to pay attention to the job of learning. With guidelines, such as no throwing or putting the fidget spinners in another person’s face, students can successfully calm themselves, pay closer attention to their teachers and learn ways to independently monitor their behaviors by using fidget spinners. This is a win-win for students and teachers alike. No

Mallory Cook Hermon TA

It’s quite remarkable, that, high schoolers, typically enveloped in their Apple and Android devices have found themselves hypnotized by the simplicity of a small, spinning toy. Refreshing as it may seem, the new “spinner” phase has seemed to put “bottle flipping” to rest; however, the contraption itself, coined as a “discrete focus enhancer,” is causing more in-class distractions than bottle flipping ever could have. Marketing such a device as “focus enhancing” has parents rushing to their local toy stores to purchase something they hope will better their child’s performance in school and at home. It’s also a nice changeup from videogames, Facebook, Candy Crush, and any other screen time. There is no debating the research that shows those with attention disorders can benefit from fidgets, depending on the individual and the nature of his/her disorder, but this “spinners-for-all” epidemic is creating a bad name for tools that were once useful and distracting students from their learning. Additionally, it’s furthering the divide between the haves and the have nots. Spinners represent a status — a material object that helps students fit in with the masses. While the drumming and clicks of pens have ceased, they have been replaced with an audible and persistent whirl. A whirl heard is a whirl envied. Those without spinners want to give it a go. Much like a phone, if it is in a student’s sight, it’s hard to resist the temptation to use it, leaving many teachers with no choice but to take them away or ban them entirely from their classrooms, but it can be hard to institute a rule mid-way through the year. It is especially hard when students and their parents use the valid argument that the device helps them to focus. While this may be true for some, it is not true for all. So what can we do? Though I haven’t banned spinners from my classroom, much like I haven’t banned music or gum chewing during work time, the second the tool becomes a distraction, it becomes a hostage to my desk. There are many other, less obtrusive fidgets available at similar price points. There is the classic stress ball, silly putty, elastic bands, cubes, pencil toppers, and the list goes on. So, despite their simplicity and supposed innocence, spinners are causing our students and our teachers to fidget.