If I see one more bloody .,..

[pieceofpurplesky]

Stress cube, stress snakey thing, stress twisty thing I think I will scream.

They are the new water bottle/glue flipping craze.

If a pupil had a genuine need then they do a great job but I know that the 16 kids out of 25 do not need them. They are just fiddling. Then the pupil next to them wants a fiddle. Then someone wants a go on the snakey thing sand swaps it for a cube.
Please tell me it's not just me.

[Moominmammaatsea]

Yes, Octopus, I take your point. I do see that it must be distracting for everyone, which is why I don't send my child to school with a tangle, even though it would probably save her from biting her finger nails down to the quick.

I'm the biggest people-pleaser in the world and I'm sure that I spent my seventies schooldays sat on my hands when they weren't busy doing some super-whizzy work to impress Miss. But I grew up to believe that Jimmy Savile was a hero and that grown-ups were automatically right, whatever they did or said.

I'm not sure I can articulate what I want to say which is that it alarms me to read teachers nostalgic for the old days when children had no voice and SENs were not properly recognised and school children were valued mainly for sitting still.

I'll be honest, it drives me crackers as a parent that my daughter cannot sit for a nanosecond without fiddling and faffing, and, god knows, I've done my very best to try to teach and encourage her to do so, but it would break my heart to think her class teachers were so dismissive of her personal struggles.

On a separate note, do you think the increase in classroom distraction toys could be related to the march of technology and the fact that children everywhere are role-modelled by parents and adults who are constantly fiddling on a phone or tablet?

[Moominmammaatsea]

Fair enough, Superpug, I just happen to hate rolly-eyes...I have enough of them from my nine-year-old! No offence taken and definitely none intended. I apologise for singling you out, that wasn't very sporting or kind of me. Sorry.

[SuburbanRhonda]

I think the nostalgia is for the days when children were able to listen without having to fiddle with something, not for the days when SEN provision was poor

[AChickenCalledKorma]

Conversely, I am also a parent who dips into this area to help me understand what the people who teach my children are going through. And I now have a much clearer idea why my easily-distracted year 7 daughter has suddenly developed a peculiar interest in tangle toys and slime. I had no idea it was a craze and I will now be firmer in my belief that she is undoubtedly one of the 95% who just need to get a grip and learn to sit still!

Interesting point about technology, though Moominmamma. (And you sound like a very caring and appropriately protective parent for your troubled daughter .)

[noblegiraffe]

increase in classroom distraction toys could be related to the march of technology

No, it's a fad, like bottle flipping, dabbing and loom bands.

[Wolfiefan]

It is a fad.
I have taught children who absolutely need something to help them focus. I remember one with very specific needs. Every lesson the book, hands and even desk were doodled on. So I bought a notepad. When it was needed I slipped it on the desk. Doodling happened but in a contained way and child could focus. Win win.
Totally different from what is happening here.

[Astro55]

These are no different to smelly rubbers, smiggle pencils, match cards, marbles, toys in shoes, hair bows or any other array 'in things'

This one happens to be related to SEN -

The teachers aren't having ago at the necessary - just the crazy

[HarrietSchulenberg]

I find it often distracts the child more as he/she becomes immersed in it, even when used appropriately, and sometimes finds it hard to put down in order to write or participate in a practical activity. I used to think they were great until I actually saw them in action.

[OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow]

Do you not think Moomin, that teachers are also frustrated by the endless pursuit of results and the detrimental effect this has on children? If you'd been on this a few more times you'd see that it is the main thing we worry about.
But anyway. Luckily this hasn't hit our school yet, though we do have a few students who are allowed lumps of blue tack to fiddle with. I'm sure it does help some students(Moomins dd included), but when you see the ball of blu getting bigger and bigger and becoming the only thing that the student will focus, on you wonder.

[AlexanderHamilton]

My two children have one. Dh (who is a teacher) ordered them from an asd website after attending a training day.

They are marvellous. For dd aged 15 it's stopped her endless annoying pen clicking and kicking the back of the seat of the child in front of her in choir.

For ds it helps him to focus & concentrate. He finds it incredibly difficult to listen to anyone e.g. A teacher explaining a task whilst sitting still.

[SuperPug]

Moomin, no problem- I think i can be a bit defensive as some teacher bashing threads on here turn a little nasty for no reason.
I hope your daughter is ok and well supported in her school.

[noblegiraffe]

I think people going 'omg teachers are being insensitive to the needs of kids with SEN' don't realise that the last few weeks have seen an explosion in the number of kids bringing these things in. Maybe a third of the class have them in some cases.

Taptaptaptaptaptap what's that noise? It's Jonny spinning his spinner against the desk. Whiiiiiiiirrrrrr it's Jack's spinner spinning across the table. Thwack It's Max hitting Sam for breaking his spinner into little pieces.

[thatdearoctopus]

There is also a difference between a small item that can be discreetly held in the hand of one child and squeezed, and some of the "toys" that are emerging. I had a child from another class turn up to my Assembly with what looked like a lava lamp! Of course, every child in the near vicinity was fussing about craning their heads and elbowing other kids to get a look at that, which was hugely distracting to what I was trying to teach.

[PenelopeFlintstone]

I'm a parent not a teacher, but I was truly confused when the teacher told ALL kids to bring in a fiddle toy. I'm sure it's a distraction for my daughter who has no special needs.

[AlexanderHamilton]

Ds & have the cubes but we don't allow those into school as they are too noisy. As children with an asd they understand that annoying noises can affect other children in the same wY as they have sensory issues.

What they use in school is these.

[thatdearoctopus]

the teacher told ALL kids to bring in a fiddle toy



Is it a very young and inexperienced teacher, by any chance?

[m0therofdragons]

Dd can be a bit anxious so her teacher gave her a fidget cube. She's never had concentration issues. I was in main reception talking to the secretary about something and dd came to the office on a job for the teacher, fidget cube in hand. I chatted briefly to her and that evening had to talk to her about losing the cube (was the first time I'd known she had one as she'd been given it that week). Talking to her while she fiddled made me rage beyond belief. I wanted to snatch it from her and chuck it out the window. How anyone can teach a class full of fiddlers is beyond me... I think I'd kill.

[Moominmammaatsea]

Thanks everyone for your feedback, it's given me plenty of food for thought as a parent to a child with additional needs. If you don't mind, I would like to dip into this forum again (even though I'm not a teacher)? As I mentioned previously, I do find it useful to get a sense of the current classroom thinking and how I can best help my child fit in at school (she's already had to move once due to severe bullying).

Besides, there's a better class of debate here than in Style & Beauty (my guilty secret) but don't tell them!

[leccybill]

It's balloons at my place. Blowing them up, letting them down, popping them, sticking them up jumpers, arguing over them.

Give me strength. One more week.

[Youdosomething]

Fiddle toys, blue tack, elastic bands, stress relief for difficult work and long conversations .... And I am the headteacher! 😉

[lamado]

Another teacher here. I've got 2 kids in my class who have putty. One child quietly manipulates it and I genuinely believe it has helped him concentrate (it also stops him drumming with pencils which helps everyone else, including me). The other child now spends most of my lesson building models, making comedy facial accessories (moustache, enlarged nose, Groucho Marx eyebrows), recreating meals in putty form, writing messages in putty and basically not doing much work. I spoke to SENCO and parents to say it's doing them more harm than good, but it was a recommendation in a report the parents paid £££s for so the putty stays.
I have recommended it to one other parent whose child is a real fidget, however lots of children keep bringing it in who really don't need it. My catchphrase at the moment is 'no paperwork, no putty!'
I'm hoping it's a craze that will die down, but I'm not a complete cynic and it's something I will try out with other fidgeters that come my way.

[RicottaPancakes]

Why are they even allowed to bring toys to school?

[gillybeanz]

My dd has permission to use the crazy aaron putty stuff.
It must be hard for teachers when they are faced with children bringing what can be used for aids to create havoc.
I think the comments have been very fair and balanced considering that there are 30 children in the class to consider.
Mine is a teen and her friends have started to ask to use her putty, usually in a class.
The teachers are fine but I'm sure if it continues and disrupts the class dd won't be able to use it anymore
Saying that it hasn't helped her results so not sure how good it is anyway.
My dd doesn't have the paperwork atm, we too have to pay ££££ for assessment for dyslexia, and is having ADD test soon.
Tbh, anything that helps her concentrate in class has to be worth it, as we are beginning to worry she won't gain core GCSE's.

[Moominmammaatsea]

Youdosomething, that cracked me up. Fair enough if the kids are genuinely being annoying, but I do believe we should look to ourselves as role models. I don't take my daughter to the cinema too often (mainly because I don't want her to disturb other people with her fiddling and tuneless humming - another distraction habit that is so agonisingly intolerable that it deserves its own thread) I simply couldn't believe the inability of the majority of attendant adults to sit still without constant eating, drinking, bum scratching, toileting, chatting, web searching, texting, tweeting and Facebook posting.

[lamado]

My 'no paperwork, no putty' is not a hard rule - I use it to bat away the increasing number of children who turn up with putty/slime and feel hard done by when I tell them they can't use it in class.