A fidget spinner is a type of toy, whose marketers claim it relieves stress. ... The toy has been advertised as helping people who have trouble with focusing or fidgeting (such as those with ADHD, autism, or anxiety) by acting as a release mechanism for nervous energy or psychological stress. - Wikipedia‍

We caught up with Zoie Hoffman from Zoie Hoffman Tutoring and asked her how students can use a fidget spinner to focus.

A fidget spinner is a little object that you can spin, fidget with, play with, use one handed as you read or listen to someone, and is one of the most popular products on Amazon these days.

What are some of the positives of fidget spinners?

The fingers that you use to spin this are the fingers you use for fine motor skills.

The fingers that you use to spin this are the fingers you use for fine motor skills. I realized last night when I spinning this that I was pinching the object with my fingers and spinning the fidget spinner with my pointer finger. These are the three fingers that you use to write and so I know a lot of families with children who have cerebral palsy and things like that where they have fine motor issues. The squeezing and the spinning motions are great for strengthening those handwriting skills so it is helpful in that way. - Zoie

Other families are using a fidget spinner as a game. How do you do that?

Recently, I saw that someone had put an arrow on part of the fidget spinner and then laid it on a chore chart and it was spun to choose the kid's chore for the day. It's a pretty clever way to get your kid's to do their chores. - Zoie

How can kids use fidget spinners to learn?

Creating games around the fidget spinner for studying purposes is a great way to use these toys.

Having kids spin the fidget spinner as fast as they possibly can and then recite whatever they are trying to learn. For example, recite a single multiplication table as fast as they can and try to finish before the fidget spinner stops spinning. Creating games around the fidget spinner for studying purposes is a great way to use these toys. - Zoie Dr. Christina Kirk was supposed to join us today but we had some technical difficulties. She had a suggestion for parents to collect fidget spinners before school and to then give them back after homework has been completed if these are causing attention problems for your kids instead of helping them to focus. - Josh

Any final advice for parents?

Do not resist the fidget. If your kid really wants to then you can find parameters that you can put it in. With any fidget tool, I always suggest to my students and their parents that they set rules around those. This is the function that it is supposed to be serving and when it is not serving that function then it needs to go back to its home wherever that may be. Children who have attention issues usually have baskets full of these types of things and it's just important that your child and you realize that this is what it's function is and when we are not using it for that function then it can become addictive.  - Zoie