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.

[p1nkflam1ngos]

My son (11) has ASD and had chewy pencil toppers, and a chewy necklace for class, mostly because he will suck and chew on his clothing, or chew his pencils down (even the plastic ones.) I did make sure though, that I asked permission from his class teacher before sending him in with them. He has a fidget cube, that we have not sent into school with him, purely because of the noise issue, and incase it distracts the other students. He has been given a plastic tangle thingy by the school to help with his anxiety. I would have thought it appropriate for the parents to actually check these items were allowed in the classroom before allowing them to be taken in?

[DramaQueenofHighCs]

I'm an LSA and a parent of a 'fidgiter' so I can comment on both counts a little.

Where I work (high school) the students who need something are allowed something like plasticine or a small fiddle toy but must keep it under the desk (though in one class the two students who need them - we have high SEN intake - are seated at the back so can get them out). They can also have a small doodle pad but if they are caught doodling innapropriatly or disturbing class mates with what they are doing then the doodle pad has to go away for the lesson.

My own DS(8) is a real proper fidget. He can't even sit still at home (manages in the theatre though which is weird!) and we have tried everything we can at home and at school too but he just can't sit still in his seat! His School have been trying him with some blu tac and also a special chair that can be tipped a bit/fidgeted on as it has a sort of rocker/rounded base (or so I'm lead to understand from DS and his teacher - I haven't actually seen the chair.). If this trial is successful they may buy him one of those chairs. (Apparently his class were all very interested in his special chair for the first couple of days but soon lost interest with it. The trial ends next week when the chair has to go back to the manufacturers, but if it's been a success they have said they will buy one for him. He is a highly intelligent lad and mostly very well behaved apart from a bit too much talking and 'humming' which we are working on with him. His teacher and us don't believe he is doing it deliberately to distract others (most of the time anyway, he isn't a perfect angel).

[Toffeelatteplease]

We were always in classrooms...

Rocking on chairs, breaking expensive watch and jewellery clasps, destroying pen lids, clicking propelling pencils until the lead was too long and it broke, putting holes in clothes etc

I'm rather glad that DD has a tangle tease. Thankfully her teachers are open minded enough to see the sense.

[gillybeanz]

lamado

I realised this, it seems unfair on those who do see the benefit.
I'm sure teachers will just ban the whole stuff soon and the dc who need the aids won't be allowed them due to a blanket ban. I hope it doesn't come to this, I wouldn't blame the teachers though, there's only so much disruption you can take.

Drama
My dd started off humming in class, she couldn't help herself.
It is allowed at her new school but that's fair enough I suppose as most have some little quirk.
As long as he's in tune I have never heard of another child doing this, I wonder if it's common amongst certain children.

[DramaQueenofHighCs]

gilly I'm not sure how common the humming is, but I know DS does it a lot. Though at parents evening I had to tell the teacher that I know exactly where he gets it from as I'm the same! My students are always giving me nudges and saying "Miss you're humming again!"
His teacher said it wouldn't be so bad if others weren't distracted so we are working on volume more than anything with him. I only hum very quietly myself but I honestly don't realise I'm doing it half the time and when I do I stop.

[PenelopeFlintstone]

Is it a very young and inexperienced teacher, by any chance?
Actually, no. Late forties and Head of Primary School (school goes from K-12)
"I have to take a fidget to school." Husband and I: "A what?!?"

[Astro55]

Thankfully her teachers are open minded enough to see the sense

If you read the OP it isn't the necessary ones - it's about the CRAZE for them - all children are bringing them in comparing them playing with them - I think the teacher has been very understanding!

[gillybeanz]

Drama

My dd said it helped her concentrate, but as a teacher myself (not currently practising) I know how disruptive it can be even though it's low level.
She is now at a specialist music school where even though academic subjects are important they come second to music. In most classes they make allowances for her and others with similar quirks.
I can see how it wouldn't work in mainstream though. She turns everything she has to learn into a mini opera.

[ChipsForSupper]

I try my hardest to be Miss Trunchball but never quite pull it off. The other teacher I like to model myself on is that PE teacher from Glee - can you imagine anyone bringing putty into her class or fiddling about with some clicky magnets or whizzing a whirrer across the table?

Also, I believe all these fiddly diddly concentration gimmicks are a huge block to children's imaginations. Whatever happened to those wonderful moments of boredom when, unable to concentrate any longer, you allowed yourself to drift off, gaze out the window and daydream about all sorts of things? My poor concentrators are now never allowed a moment to themselves, instead they have to whirr and click and flick and tap - they're like manic robots, poor things.

[VioletLips]

Parent of a very fidgety ds here, I never knew these fiddle toys were accepted in some schools.

Ds (10) hasn't been diagnosed with a SEN but he fiddles, sucks his clothes, chews the skin on his fingers etc

He actually sat still the other day while we were watching a film as he was kneading a tray of Moon Sand. He'd be mortified if his friends knew but he loves the stuff, seems to diminish the fidget in him. Can you imagine that being allowed into school

[hellokittymania]

I went to a special needs residential school and one of her teachers used to allow us to sit with a stuffed animal. This was in middle school so grade 6 to 8, I really liked it as it waS calming. Other teachers did allow students to color if it helped us to pay attention. When I was in grade 10, I took some classes at the mainstream school and with the exception of my foreign language classes, which I loved I really had a hard time to concentrate. So, I occupied myself with taking extra notes!

Maybe suggest to the teenagers that they should bring in some interesting stationery that they would like to use, instead of the stress toys.

[Astro55]

It's not the spinners - it's the 'crazy for.....'. Add anything you like

It's not the children who needs .... Its those who want .....

It's the craze that children have tonhave at the moment - spinners, stationary, hair bows, rubbers, pencil case,
AND the parents who buy into these crazes

[LornaD40]

We've got slime and those stress/spinny things 😑

[forlornalien]

Moomin I've never dared to send her to school with a tangle toy for fear of evoking the type of responses evinced on this thread. Good job, too, it would seem.

It's a shame you feel that way because if a child genuinely needs one, as your DD seems to, then I think the teachers would welcome it.

The only good thing I have to say about fiddle things (except in cases of genuine need) is that at least it is better than 30 children opening and closing velcro shoes. Whoever invented Velcro shoes should be forced to spend the rest of their days locked in a room with the sound on continuous repeat for 5 hours a day.

[ohthegoats]

I fucking hate this profession at the moment.

[lamado]

Forlornalien - As a teacher I have never been able to buy my children Velcro shoes!

[1nsanityscatching]

Spinners are banned in dd's secondary school and fiddle toys only allowed for those with a recognised need (statement/EHCP/IEP)
Dd is a doodler and it makes a world of difference to her anxiety levels (ASD) SENCo notified each teacher of her need because I don't think doodling is as common as fidget toys are in her school. We supply dd's doodling books as she is quite possessive over stuff and wouldn't want a communal one.
She has fidget cubes and tangle toys at home if she wants them but I find them irritating (particularly the clicking) so can imagine that with more than a couple in the class it would be infuriating.

[1nsanityscatching]

Funnily enough when ds went to an independent specialist school for autism they discouraged his (and his classmates) use of blu tac or other fidgets because they didn't consider them helpful and believed rather than helping focus they distracted them and so broke his habit of thirteen years in mainstream education.

[forlornalien]

Forlornalien - As a teacher I have never been able to buy my children Velcro shoes!

I can't think why you have a problem with them!

[Iggi999]

I saw the spinners for the first time this week, they have sprung up out of nowhere! I'm sure my own dc would love them though. Better not.

[CrowyMcCrowFace]

My older 2dc have both just bought spinners from classmates, using pocket money from their dad.

Not thrilled about them. Banned them from bringing to school.

Also broke up a fight today between two NT year 7s because A broke B's spinner.

Have got a box on my desk for phones, water bottles used for flipping etc. In go the spinners.

It's a fad. Happy to accommodate if it's on an IEP, otherwise nope.