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!

Wow - entitled, much. This here is a great example of the problem with society today, in a single sentence.

Thank fuck. Sometimes I feel I have fallen down the rabbit hole into a parallel universe. As if fidget toys are as important as wheelchairs or glasses. My registered blind teen would be totally lost and completely disabled and vulnerable without her specialist glasses (she has a tiny bit of functional sight in one eye). She also has autism and ADHD. She might be slightly bored without a fidget toy or two. For about five minutes.

This is my feeling, honestly. All the kids I know have fidget toys just as toys, and they seem to break really easily and quickly!

The discussion - not a drip feed, just didn't realize it hadn't attached!

That's like me saying that glasses aren't important to anyone because I can still see enough to get around and I can still read without them.
Just because your child doesn't need the fidget doesn't mean that others don't.

No not entitled- a legal document. The local authority has to provide what is set out in an EHCP.
There are all sorts of inconvenient provisions set out in EHCPs- is it just provision for adhd and autism you have a problem with?

Her autism and adhd is very different to my daughter’s autism and adhd then. My daughter needs her fidget aids more than her glasses.

Report yet another example of attacks against autism and adhd on MN. You can’t attack reasonable adjustments for those with ND any more than with physical disabilities but many on MN seems to think it’s ok. It isn’t.

Oh don’t be absolutely ridiculous! Glasses are my BLIND daughter’s window to life. She is a teen and she needs her glasses to be safe and cross roads. Even with her glasses, she is vulnerable as hell because she is blind.

Is your daughter blind?

They are very important to some
ND people

It's not.

I'm ND. I'm also partially sighted and need glasses to see anything more than six inches in front of my nose. So I sorta have a foot in each opinion.

For me, clicky fidgets are awful and unbearable.

Yes, no doubt. But they are not life or death like wheelchairs or glasses.

No but she has debilitating SEN and needs the reasonable adjustments she needs. Many many people who wear glasses aren’t blind. Your daughter doesn’t speak for all glasses wearers.

I haven't bashed anything.

How is making ANYTHING a fidget item any differnt to fashioning your own glasses or wheelchair? They are still disability aids whether they're custom or home made.

My daughter is blind. I will rest it there.

My daughter had a wheelchair too and glasses. Neither were life or death in the same way that reasonable adjustments for her ND are. She has attempted to take her life several times.

Others will vary in need as regards wheelchairs and glasses .

I’m not playing SEN top trumps. You know nothing about my daughters needs.

And some autistic people run in to traffic during a meltdown, which can be prevented by using fidgets. Just how your daughters glasses prevent her walking into traffic. What's the difference?

The thread as a whole is yet another ND bashing thread. MN is becoming well known for it.

But that’s the point - everyone is an individual disabled or not. Just because one aid is vital to your daughter doesn’t mean a different aid isn’t vital to someone else.

why does everything need to be turned into some sort of competition? Let’s just accept everyone is different and if someone using an aid helps them cope with daily life then brilliant

Yep. MNHQ removing comments that challenge the ND bashing too but not the ones that are doing the bashing.

Just to reiterate, glasses can be life or death for those who are registered blind or partially sighted. I wear glasses because I am moderately short sighted with astigmatism. I am not registered blind or partially sighted. Many people wear glasses for short sightedness or long sightedness. This does not make them partially sighted or registered blind. Being registered blind or partially sighted is a legal disability. Me being a bit shortsighted does not make me disabled. If I forgot my glasses, I would be unlikely to be mown down on a zebra crossing. My daughter would if she forgot her glasses which give her a minute percentage of vision.

And my daughter has been near death for all sorts of things as a result of her ND. Her reasonable adjustments are just as valid. Many ND people can’t see traffic or many other dangers when in crisis or meltdown.

My DD is blind and also has ADHD and autism. I still think it is ridiculous to compare plastic toys to medical devices that could save a person’s life - or, in the case of wheelchairs, give them access to society.