The fidget spinners may be back as new fashion toy, but have been a tool for teachers, guidance counselors and therapists for a while.
“Promoting movement is a common method of managing attention regulation,” says Elaine Taylor-Klaus. Taylor-Klaus is the co-founder of ImpactADHD, a coaching service for children with attention disorders and for their parents.
“For some people [with disorders], there is a need for constant stimulation,” he says. “What one movement allows is that some people – not all of them – with ADHD focus their attention on what they want to focus on, because there is a kind of background movement that is filling that need.”
If you’ve ever seen people drumming with pencils, twisting pieces of paper or even scribbling during meetings, you’ve seen the power of the movement in action.