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No Fear No Favour

Why There Is So Much Fuss About Fidget Spinner? Read details

The season hottest toy: Fidgets Spinners are propeller-shaped toys that are spun between a person’s fingers. The momentum of the toy provides a pleasing sensory experience. They are silent, pocket-sized and relatively inexpensive.

Some versions of these spinners are being marketed on various e-commerce platform as an aide for people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism and anxiety. Parents of students who use them for therapeutic purposes claim they help their kids focus during stressful situations.

But are they really doing so?Actually, there is no supporting scientific evidence, and at least one expert has debunked the claims. Dr Mark Rapport, director of the Children’s Learning Clinic at the University of Central Florida, said: “Using a spinner-like gadget is more like to serve as a distraction than a benefit for individuals with ADHD.”

The toys are not just being used as learning tools, and they are popping up in elementary and middle schools across the country and becoming a classroom distraction.Ken Kunin, South Portland Superintendent, says there have already been cases in the elementary schools where teachers have told kids not to bring the spinners into class. He says this happens over the years when various toys become extremely popular and end up distracting kids from learning.
The challenge of tossing, transferring and twirling the spinners has spawned an entire universe of instructional YouTube videos creating attention to the spinners. Now, Fidget spinners are not limited to the distractions among students but actually occupying them with the utilisation of energy on such a non-productive thing as a new addiction.

Interestingly, the inventor of the device, Catherine Hettinger, told Money magazine that fidgets spinners were actually conceived as a way to keep kids out of trouble — not as a mental health aid or ADHD treatment. Hettinger got the idea while visiting Israel and watching children throw stones at police officers. “[Fidget spinners] started as a way of promoting peace,” she said.

By: Simran Dhingra

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