Fidget spinners and fidget cubes (pictured above) have become the latest trend. Though it’s great to see something such as these spinners/cubes becoming so popular, it’s also very disheartening because it’s making it seem like mental illness is a trend.
Now before you read me for filth in the comments section, let’s think about this for a second. A fidget spinner/cube is supposed to prevent you from, well, fidgeting. These were made for people suffering from anxiety, ADHD, and autism. They’re not made for Jacob to have something to do because he needs to be entertained. Stop giving your neurotypical children things that are made for people who have mental illnesses. It’s hard enough trying to get help from a therapist/doctor already. Don’t take away things that are helpful to someone else just because it “looks cool”. That makes you “look” like a jerk.
A lot of schools have begun to ban fidget spinners because they’re “annoying“, which, to an extent, is valid, but the issue lies within the fact that these are considered sensory tools and banning them is more harmful than helpful especially for those students who have ADHD, etc. If we were to change the setting, maybe put the child in a room with a therapist, they would be using a fidget spinner because it’s calming.
So why is the classroom any different? The purpose of the spinner is to activate the prefrontal lobe which is where attention is located. Without the prefrontal lobe being active, there’s relatively no chance that a child would be paying attention, and research has shown that children especially aged 8-12 benefit from using sensory tools such as the spinners because they activate that portion of the brain. It’s fair to say that the fidget spinners and cubes have become a trend because they have, prior to December of 2016 the searches for these things were almost nonexistent, but for some, it’s not a trend and it isn’t fair to make a child suffer because someone else thinks it’s a toy.
I think if we’re going to use fidget spinners/cubes, we need to take a long look at the mental health of the country because as quiet as it’s kept, a lot of people are suffering from anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, the list goes on. Not only do we need to look at mental health more closely but we also need to take a step back and look at the stigma around mental health, but that’s a different article for a different day. I’m not saying that you have to get rid of your fidget spinner/cube if you just got it because it’s trendy, but if you’re going to use it, we need to become more knowledgeable about mental health. Mental health issues don’t go away just because you don’t talk about them.
