Fidget spinners are not new, but they have been popping up a lot recently.
A fidget spinner is a spinning wheel. You can let it spin between your fingers for minutes. Also fun to do tricks with.
The spinner was invented in 1993 by Catherine Hettinger. She came up with it to calm her busy child. Spinning the fidget spinner seems to be good if you fidget a lot. It could make you calmer and more alert. Four years later she applied for a patent, but in 2005 she gave up the patent, because she could not afford the amount.
Whether the fidget spinner really helps to improve concentration in children with ADHD? Opinions differ on that. Now that it has become a popular toy, more and more schools are banning the thing.
The director of the ADHD center in the Netherlands has mixed feelings about fidget spinners. Now that it's cool to have one, kids with ADHD may be less likely to be pigeonholed and that's a good thing. Because it's such a hype now, some schools are starting to ban and that's annoying for the kids who really benefit from it.
