Fidget Spinners?

[lostpony]

Whats this fidget cube everyone but me knows about?

I found a couple of traditional wooden tops that i like but they require a surface to use. I took one to work but my fingers never stop moving there anyway so i've only used it a couple of times there, but it's nice to have around especially after taking my ponies home.

This is. It's a small cube, designed to help you focus when you're distracted. It has a lot of tactile aspects, including switches, buttons, and so forth, that you can "fidget" to burn off restlessness or excess energy. The goal is that by eliminating your desire to move around and fidget, you can focus on work or the task at hand.

It can also give you something to fixate on, if you're anxious, to get your mind off of whatever it is that causes your anxiety. People have used similar coping methods for ages, they just condensed them into a tidy package.

Thanks for the link!

"Do not use if you have an aversion to rectangular prisms"

For me the variety might make it work. $22 is kinda expensive as a risk, but if it works out the price would be totally worth it.

[Cswift]

I had no idea these things were actually a "kid" trend! An adult friend of mine was eyeing some nice metal  ones on Etsy, so I got one for him for Christmas. While it's not personally my thing, I do think they're kind of mesmerizing and I totally understand how it'd be soothing to have one. It became kind of a game for us to see how fast/continuously we could get it to spin.

My friend did/does have some chronic pain issues, too, so that might have something to do with it. I haven't really asked.

Just looked at the fidget cubes. They're pretty weird, but cute! I kind of prefer the continuous motion of the spinners, but I can imagine the cubes would be way more effective than, say, a stress ball.

[Hannah66665]

My sister and I actually ordered ourselves a fidget cube last night... (some of the cheaper knock offs from amazon at the moment... I do want to order a legit one and support the creators when I have more spending money >.<) but I'm not at all familiar with the fidget spinners. They don't look as exciting to me as some other stim toys though... but maybe I haven't found a good enough video of one in action. I would like to get myself a worry stone, one with an indent for my thumb... I get especially nervous in car rides and the repetitive motion of touching smooth surfaces like that help calm me down.

There are a lot of great options for stim toys on stimtastic https://www.stimtastic.co/ ... I love my chewy mushroom pendant.  They have spinner rings too which are a lot more subtle.

[Midnight_Dream]

Personally I think these are some of the dumbest things ever invented. It does nothing but spin in a circle...yay? In two months you will find millions of these in the trash.

For a lot of kids, yeah. But, it does certainly have a purpose for people on the autism spectrum or have something like ADHD. Like Lhianneth says, the repetitive motion is good for relaxing/focusing. For my small hands spinners wouldn't be effective, but the motion certainly would for my ADHD. (I would also likely have used it privately or under a desk, but I am also an adult compared to the teenage demographic that seem to be attached to them right now)

Hm, not sure I understand how that works, but if it helps it helps. From my angle it's just a dumb thing kids want because I think they'll all get bored with them after five seconds once they actually get them.

[dragonfly]

I just heard about these last week. I had to Youtube it. 

[lostpony]

I saw two of them in person last week, one by a person working at a desk then a day or two later being played with by a kid in a store.  The guy working at the desk looked really stressed and he stopped its spinning (against his forehead) to return to his work, so it seems a legitimate fidget to me.

I'm assuming we are discussing the same thing; I'd never heard of them before.

Personal anecdote, not entirely on topic, follows under spoiler to spare the thread

Spoiler

For me, as a kid, it wasn't so much losing focus in class as unstoppable finger-or-pencil drumming in required classes where I already knew everything that drove me absolutely mad with boredom.  Of course this wasn't appreciated by the other students or the teachers, who were also all stuck there against their will.

I'm not really sure what will actually work for me; I have a dissociative "numb" state and it's unclear whether a cube (which doesn't do anything back except click after you do something to it) or a motion fidget like the spinner is going to be enough to help me avoid that state, but I'm always grateful to see them discussed here so I can learn about them.  So far, toys help me feel better while playing with the toys, but not so much to focus or help me choke down what I'm supposed to be doing when it's the source of my angst.  It's amazing how much low-priority stuff I can get done when I am avoiding what I am supposed to be doing...

[Mami Tomoe]

im exited to see new toys it might inspire other companies too

[Lhianneth]

Personally I think these are some of the dumbest things ever invented. It does nothing but spin in a circle...yay? In two months you will find millions of these in the trash.

For a lot of kids, yeah. But, it does certainly have a purpose for people on the autism spectrum or have something like ADHD. Like Lhianneth says, the repetitive motion is good for relaxing/focusing. For my small hands spinners wouldn't be effective, but the motion certainly would for my ADHD. (I would also likely have used it privately or under a desk, but I am also an adult compared to the teenage demographic that seem to be attached to them right now)

Hm, not sure I understand how that works, but if it helps it helps. From my angle it's just a dumb thing kids want because I think they'll all get bored with them after five seconds once they actually get them.

I felt the same way when I first saw them, then asked a teacher friend what was the deal with this weird trend. Basically, it's the same thing as always happens when a product is made for a niche market: those outside of the niche find it, it becomes a gimmick (and potentially explodes), and there you have it.

Something that I found out that's quite interesting, however, is that products that are actually designed for people with disabilities are often marketed the way this fidget spinner has been, in order to get funding to make it accessible to the original market. Snuggies, for example, were designed for people in wheelchairs, since it can be a pain to bundle up when you aren't as mobile. They couldn't get funding for mass production just based on those sales, however, so they put it on late night TV as a gimmicky product for lazy couch potatoes, or sports game attendees. By selling it as a gimmick rather than a genuine need, they were then able to sell it at a volume that it was available to the original market. It's clever, though very roundabout, and similar to what's happened with these spinners.

[Koudoawaia]

I'm a high functioning autistic as well and am not the least impressed by what I'm seeing.

[TornadoTwist]

I got the cube and it quite helps me stop destroying my fingernails. I do that out of stress or boredom most of the time. My classmates are going crazy about it and want to borrow it the whole time. xD

[brightberry]

My husband and I bought two.  I think they're neat looking and remind me of a large ball bearing I had as a kid.  My husband took his apart because mine spun quieter than his did.  He's sprayed it, replaced parts and has really made the poor thing suffer.  But it's quieter now.  So many hours of distraction, I think he really got his money's worth.   

[cuddlebuggy]

I asked some teachers yesterday about them, spinners vs cubes and all that but most younger kids used them like toys. It's possible that older kids may use them for their intended purpose but they can be distracting for some kids and teachers. I'm thinking I may get my kid something like modeling clay or silly putty to work with instead and am meeting next week with my daughters future middle school to see what they would like me to do. She has such a mild case of add, dyslexia and dysgraphia that the school doesn't recommend any further intervention as it doesn't keep her from doing well on her Starr test scores passing. I could ask her dr for medication but I feel like we can try other options for now. I'd like to try other options first, you know? At 12 I has the same sort of diagnosis. Yes, I had some signs but not enough to outweigh the risks of the medication.

[lostpony]

I'm no expert and I know that in the past, people have (usually) wrongfully dismissed restlessness in kids as a product of too much sugar...but generally kids are fed way too much carbs and way too little protein for breakfast, in accordance with the totally false "food pyramid".

I'm just figuring this out as an adult, and I think feeding kids a lot more protein with breakfast than is generally done these days should help a lot with focus/restlessness for kids in school.  Eating much less carbs overall according to recent Dr's orders has made a big difference for me in so many ways.

To be clear I'm not saying it's a "solution" to anything but I believe it would help overall.

[Ponyfan]

Thanks everyone. I got one today and found out that some stores are already putting them behind the registers and you have to specifically ask for them in order to buy them.  I'm already having fun spinning it.

Here's a pic of mine.

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Fidget Spinner by LovesBarbie, on Flickr

[Chrissytree]

I've got a spinner ring that I use when I'm anxious and when I saw the cube on Facebook I was intrigued. Currently I'm not that anxious but I can certainly see that having something like that would help at times of high anxiety. I hadn't heard about the spinner though.