To think fidget toys aren't the same as glasses and wheelchairs?

[IroningThrone]

Came across a discussion on Facebook -one poster said the fidget toys in the vid were plastic tat. Another person replied that they're necessary and in the same class as glasses and wheelchairs.

They're not though, are they? The majority of them seem to be bought by kids who use them for a few weeks then they break and go in the bin. And they didn't seem to exist until a few years ago!

Blu tac doesn't work for everyone. It's annoying when everyone is so fixated on freaking blu tac , including experts/professionals. We have to try it on their recommendation, regardless of the fact that I (lowly TA) know it wouldn't work and distract the child more. Or worse , they eat it. Until they visit again 6 months later, witness the behaviour with blu tac and then recommend removing the blu tac. Yay! Long live the tick boxing and useless generalisation, even from the people who like to remind us constantly that "if you met one person with autism, you met one person with autism", except when it comes to blu tac.

There is very little evidence to support the use of fidget toys and, in my experience, they are often a distraction. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10534512221130070

I used to twirl and suck on the end of my braid as a girl with undiagnosed ADHD as a self made fidget tool. I had tried eating paper, chewing on pencils, and doodling but been smacked with a ruler for those, but wasn’t smacked for the hair tool.

I was also very short sighted and have dyslexia. My glasses were less important than my fidget toy for learning, as I couldn’t read the board and listen to the teacher. I found that if I listened in class (and hair twirling and sucking was essential to have the focus to listen) then I’d get good grades.

They're an absolute lifesaver for me.

Unless I have something in my hand to play with, I can't work. The moment I stop typing I lose focus completely. Chuck a fidget spinner, or a Rubik's cube, or a wooden puzzle in my hand, and I'm fine and dandy.

Until I realised this I used to just slowly destroy whatever was on my desk. I must have murdered thousands of biros, paper clips, staples, bottle caps etc over the years.

It's the same in my personal life too. I can't keep track of TV shows because Im scrolling mindlessly on my phone. Rubik's cube to the rescue!

Getting far too pissed far too quickly in the pub because the only thing to hand is my beer and the only available action with that is to drink it. Beer mats to flip to the rescue.

Its probably ADHD or something like that, I've never tried to get a diagnosis but I'm sure it would be noticed if I was a kid these days.

So no, not in the same league as a wheelchair, but hugely useful to me nonetheless.

There are people on this thread who have experience of their child using a wheelchair and fidget and giving them equal importance. But still the MN NT experts are out in force to belittle nerodiverse people.

They’re a lifesaver for my child with ASD, quite literally. We see them as aids. Does it really matter if we do or don’t? It has no effect on you and doesn’t detract whatsoever for the fact that my older DC uses a chair.

Well between my 2 DC with disabilities they use glasses, wheelchair and fidget aids amongst other aids and medical devices but yeah what do I know !! 🙄

My daughter would have the aids that suit her and are in her EHCP. Yes you would put a child such as yourself in the front and my child away but she would have what she needed and what’s in her EHCP. Trust me there are far more annoying and bigger noises than her fidget aids in classes which drown out a tiny bit of clicking.

I’m the same. I have now got a fidget ring from the calm collective and it has helped me massively as it’s always there and I can discreetly play with it.

You have worked with people whose disability meant that they wouldn’t be able to get out of a fire specifically because they didn’t have their fidget toy and not because the disability meant that they were unable to comprehend the danger they were in?

A colleague in my office bought me a little fidget toy when it became apparent I couldn’t make phone calls without doodling or destroying paper clips!
I can imagine that in some circumstances the right toy could be very useful for some kids

For some they are important aids, but most kids don't need them for that purpose, so they're just used as toys. same as if you gave a wheelchair to a child who didn't need one, it would be used as a toy.

I also presume people would prefer she had her aid and was sitting than roaming round the class during lessons. Noisier and more distracting.

Have done too.

They would rather we were not out in public getting in their way.
I used to be a teacher, it was pretty bad in school tbh. I remember my new head of department shouting at me ‘it is impossible to teach effectively from a sitting position’

But do you understand that while your daughter CANNOT cope without her aids, I COULD NOT cope with them? So in order for your daughter to access education, mine would be denied. In the same way you wouldn't be happy if someone told your autistic daughter she has to just suck up sitting still because that's life at times and there's worse things than sitting still, you can't tell an autistic person with noise sensitivity that they need to suck up being stuck in a room they can't cope with because there's worse noises anyway. As a child if I was in classroom with someone clicking something next to me for ages I would have either ran out or would have started picking my skin making myself bleed until I could get away.

But having aids in class (whether it be blu tac or a specific fidget toy issued by school) did improve the quality of my son’s life. It allowed him to remain in class, it helped him not be excluded from lessons and school. It allowed him to learn enough to pass a couple of exams.

In my experience half the class click , fidget, zip, rock….

You would need to get yourself an EHCP if you were unable to tolerate any background noise. My daughter has one and her fidget aids are both necessary and mandatory.

They can be helpful for some people but they do not replace an impaired ability like wheelchairs and glasses do.

Yes but my point is, if a child like me did have an EHCP that specified that and was in your child's class how would it work? This was my original point. People with disabilities have conflicting needs. And it's almost impossible to meet everyone's needs perfectly. Sometimes there has to be compromise.
Luckily for me at school in the 80s and 90s there was very little random noise. I was at a very strict school. I genuinely don't know how I would cope if I was at school now. I imagine in all honesty I wouldn't have been able to attend. My ideal school would have been in silence without any socialising at all, which obviously isn't feasible, so I needed to adapt and cope to a certain extent. But I would definitely much have preferred my version. Or even home schooling would have been even better!

@JLou08

sickening isn't it, worse even when it's posters who are or have been in a position of authority over children 😢 and 'no known benefits:no research data'. Yes, just ignore ACTUAL evidence in ACTUAL children. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I sometimes despair that this piece of absolute common sense is almost a controversial statement on MN these days.

And yes I use glasses full-time, a wheelchair part-time and I fidget with whatever is to hand to survive boring meetings. It depresses me that there are people who actually equate a fidget to a wheelchair or glasses. A fucking fidget. Kill me now our society is doomed.

You would need a EHCP and funding to be taken out of class or vice versa depending on need. I suspect you would need to be taken out rather than my daughter as she causes far less disruption than most children, there is a whole host of noise in modern classrooms and her fidget aids have never been a problem for anybody .