Fidget Spinners
Leah Langby
May 22, 2017
Keeping Up With Kids
fidget spinner

Not sure if you are seeing Fidget Spinners in your libraries (I’ve yet to lay eyes on one in person but I live a sheltered life).  Thanks to a Facebook post by Jenna at Chippewa Falls, I read a thought-provoking blog post about them. Not about their popularity or how distracting they are.  This post was written by a woman with autism, who discussed how for many years the “self-stimming” of people on the spectrum was considered to be (and still is, in many circumstances), a behavior to get rid of, rather than as a useful coping mechanism for people who are overwhelmed by sensory input.  And then, a person who is not disabled pointed out that fidgeting helps him concentrate in meetings–and now fidget toys are all the rage.  As she said:

Think about this: Decades of emotional punishment, physical violence, and other abuses. And then some guy (who just happens to be in a position with more social clout than most disabled people will ever attain) writes an article about how having a fidget toy helps him concentrate during meetings, and all of a sudden, every neurotypical person in America is falling all over themselves to get a fidget toy of their own. “

See what I mean?  Read the whole blog post to get more insight (the blog in general is worth looking at!)


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