Fidget Spinners

Specialties School

Published

Are these wreaking havoc in your schools yet??? Here in MA they are EVERYWHERE and getting banned from schools left and right.

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I have seen quite a few of these and here is my beef: for the students with ADHD a fidget can be a real helpful tool in the classroom. The children without ADHD who are bringing them in are making it an issue and causing them to be banned. Now the student with ADHD is left without their tool for learning. Why, kids, why? I have tons of these in my school and most of the ones I see with them are not dx ADHD. Not fair for the neurodivergent.

If it's genuinely needed for the ADHD kids, it can be added to either a 504 plan or IEP. Several of my young diabetics have cell phones on their 504s.

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Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.

My son has one. Personally, I like the top to a snapple bottle the best. I never tire of pressing that seal of freshness. Or my spinny thing on my keychain, not a fidget spinner. Especially useful for being stuck in traffic.

I know I need to stop when my thumb hurts.

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My son came home asking for a fidget popper. I told him absolutely not. If he needed something to do that badly I could find him some extra chores. That got him moving. He is not dx ADD/ADHD. I think they would be great for those diagnosed to use. For others, just a distraction.

Have we gotten to the "But your 504 is better than mine, so I'm gonna call that discrimination!" mentality yet?

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Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.

I'm a Fidgit Cube guy myself:

Fidget Cube: A Vinyl Desk Toy by Matthew and Mark McLachlan —Kickstarter

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haven't seem them yet.. Interesting..

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One of my diabetic kids came in with a spinner yesterday and was demoing it on my desk while I looked up some carb info for his lunch count. The dang thing made me so dizzy I told him to stop it otherwise "his nurse" might just vomit all over him!

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Specializes in school/military/OR/home health.
If it's genuinely needed for the ADHD kids, it can be added to either a 504 plan or IEP. Several of my young diabetics have cell phones on their 504s.

You are right, however, it's really difficult to get into and change an IEP or 504. We just do it the one time a year. Most of them do allow for a fidget (unspecified) but not all fidgets are created equal. I'm not against the neuro-typical having a fidget either; I just think it is being used as a toy and then when it gets banned because it creates a distraction for the majority of kids, the one or two children who really were helped by it now don't have that option.

It's just kids being kids because something got turned into a fad, but I still think it's very unfortunate for the few who really needed that particular fidget. If clicky pens had been banned in my high school I would have had a hard time!

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It's just kids being kids because something got turned into a fad, but I still think it's very unfortunate for the few who really needed that particular fidget. If clicky pens had been banned in my high school I would have had a hard time!

I twirl my hair. Good thing no one can ban that :)

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My diabetic kiddo just showed me his spinner, convenient.

He said "They are supposed to be for mental kids." (eyeroll) ((my little box with smiley's is gone -sad face)

AN changed that recently - to access the smilie box, click on "Full Editor" which is in between "Post Comment" and "Cancel". There you can add smilies or bold/italics/underline things.

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My kid asked for one of these spinners at Christmas and got one. I believe he leaves it at home now so it is not taken up at school. I hate that I have inadvertently contributed to annoying problems at jr. high.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.
AN changed that recently - to access the smilie box click on "Full Editor" which is in between "Post Comment" and "Cancel". There you can add smilies or bold/italics/underline things.[/quote']

boo- i liked having it at my fingertips. Also wanted to note that i only get the checkmarks that mean - "i posted in here" on my home computer, not my work computer. weird, right?

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I've seen them here at middle school and in elementary.

I swear my kids school jumps on every fad first bottle flipping, then kendama's, then pokemon cards and now fidget spinners. I told him I'm not paying for these fads and he can buy it with his own money.

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