The Power of Fidget Spinners: Unlocking Children’s Hidden Potential
Introduction
Have you ever wondered why some children appear to be staring off into space during class, seemingly oblivious to the lesson? Well, according to Sara-Rivka Bass, an elementary school teacher in Brooklyn, these children might actually be absorbing more information than meets the eye. Bass has discovered that using fidget spinners in the classroom can help some kids pay better attention and improve their academic performance.
The Benefits of Fidget Spinners
Bass allows her students to use fidget spinners because she has observed that they can function as a tool to enhance attention. However, she also emphasizes that if a child starts using the spinner as a toy rather than a tool, and their work begins to suffer, she will take it away.
Contrary to popular belief, fidget spinners can actually help children focus on the lesson material. While some kids may seem attentive during a lesson but fail to absorb or retain the information, others concentrate better when they have another activity, such as using a fidget spinner, to engage with alongside the lesson.
Exploring Children’s Brains
A recent study conducted by researchers from the University of Toronto delves into the differences between children’s and adults’ attention mechanisms. The study involved 24 adults, with an average age of 23, and 26 children, aged 7 to 9. Using MRI scans, the researchers measured the participants’ brain activity as they performed tasks that required them to focus on specific information while ignoring other stimuli.
The findings were surprising. The adults displayed enhanced brain activity for the information they were asked to focus on, while the children’s brains represented both the prioritized information and the ignored information. In other words, children were found to be decoding both sets of information simultaneously.
The Unique Abilities of Children’s Brains
Lead author Amy Finn, PhD, asserts that children’s attention functions differently from adults’, allowing them to learn about facts that may not be immediately relevant to a task. This heightened sensitivity to multiple aspects of the information-rich world enables children to retain more information than adults.
The study by the University of Toronto researchers fills a knowledge gap by showing that children’s seemingly poor attention actually helps them retain more information about the world than adults. The researchers emphasize that this study does not directly apply to children with ADHD, who were not the focus of their investigation.
Unlocking the Potential for ADHD Children
Considering the positive impact of fidget spinners on attention, it is worth exploring their benefits for children with ADHD. Bass, who personally experienced ADHD as a child and still faces attention challenges as an adult, recognizes that engaging in a secondary activity, like doodling or using a fidget spinner, can be beneficial for kids with ADHD. These activities can improve their ability to pay attention, especially for subjects that may not naturally capture their interest.
Talya Roth, a teacher working with fourth and fifth graders who have ADHD and autism, echoes these findings. She has observed that giving her students a spinner or allowing them to draw during lessons does not detract from their ability to pay attention, and in some cases, can even enhance it.
Recognizing Complex Attention in Children
Roth emphasizes the need for parents and teachers to acknowledge the complexity of attention in children. Even a child who appears inattentive may actually be paying attention in their own unique way. Developing intuition and discretion to differentiate between a child actively interacting with the material and those more focused on external activities, like using a spinner, is crucial for educators.
Teachers like Bass have developed an instinct to identify when a child is genuinely engaged with the material and when they may need additional support or alternative approaches to maintain attention. Recognizing and nurturing each child’s individual attention style can lead to more effective learning experiences and improved academic outcomes.
Conclusion
Fidget spinners, once seen as mere toys, are now emerging as valuable tools for enhancing attention and improving academic performance among children. The research study conducted by the University of Toronto sheds light on the unique capabilities of children’s brains and highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of attention in the classroom.
While it is essential to recognize that every child is different and may require varied strategies to maximize their attention and learning potential, the power of fidget spinners should not be underestimated. Teachers and parents can benefit from incorporating these tools into the classroom and home environments to support children’s learning journeys.
Summary
In a world where children’s attention seems to wander, fidget spinners have emerged as unexpected allies in the quest to enhance focus and learning. According to a study by the University of Toronto, children’s brains have the unique ability to decode both relevant and irrelevant information simultaneously, allowing them to retain more information than adults. This finding challenges the conventional understanding of attention and highlights the effectiveness of using fidget spinners as tools for improving attention in the classroom. For children with ADHD, these spinners provide additional benefits by aiding their ability to pay attention to lesson material. It is important for educators and parents to recognize that children’s attention is complex and that seemingly inattentive behavior may actually indicate active engagement in their own way. By embracing the power of fidget spinners and understanding the intricacies of attention, we can unlock the hidden potential within every child.
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August 2, 2023: It’s a story as old as teaching. Young children staring into space during class, seemingly oblivious to the lesson and whatever else is going on around them.
But Sara-Rivka Bass, an elementary school teacher in Brooklyn, found that many children who appear not to be paying attention are actually absorbing more information than they seem to be.
“I let the kids in my class use a fidget spinner because it actually helps some kids pay attention,” she said. “If I see that their work is suffering, it means that they are using it as a toy instead of a tool to improve attention, and they are paying attention to the spinner, so I will take it away.”
But for many children, the spinner actually helps them focus on the lesson material.
“As an instructor, I know there can be a lot of kids who seem to be paying attention and can look me in the face during the lesson, but they don’t absorb or retain that information,” Bass said. “Other children concentrate better when they are also doing something else at the same time.”
children’s brains
There is now research to suggest that Bass may be correct. A new study shows that children’s apparent inability to pay attention may actually allow them to outperform adults and retain information they’re told to discard in a way that adults can’t.
The researchers studied 24 adults, average age 23, and 26 children ages 7 to 9. Each was asked to look at a series of four illustrations: a bumblebee, a car, a chair, and a tree. The images were accompanied by a background of dots moving up, down, left, or right.
Each person did this while inside an MRI machine, and as they watched, their brain activity was measured to show which areas of the brain were most involved.
At one point in the study, participants were told to ignore the moving dots and to press a button when one of the four objects appeared more than once. In another phase, they were asked to ignore the objects and press a button when the dots moved in the same direction more than once.
When the researchers compared the children’s and adults’ accuracy on both tasks, they found that the adults’ brains showed enhanced activity for the information they were asked to focus on.
The children’s brains, on the other hand, represented both what they were being asked to prioritize and what they were being asked to ignore. In other words, they were able to decode both sets of information at the same time.
In particular, the researchers found that the adults were highly accurate in focusing only on what they were supposed to do. But the children were able to decode both equally well.
“This somewhat surprising result shows that attention works differently in children’s brains, likely allowing them to learn about facts that are not immediately relevant to a task,” said lead author Amy Finn, PhD, associate professor from the University of Toronto.
“Current data indicates that compared to adults, children are sensitive to more information in the environment, beyond their immediate goals, and that sensitivity can be useful when children need to learn about multiple aspects of our information-rich world. information at once, or when their goals change,” the authors write.
Lead author Yaelan Jung, PhD, who worked on the study as a graduate student at the University of Toronto and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, explained in a news release. “While it’s not a strange idea that children have a shorter attention span than adults, we didn’t know how this poor attention would affect the way their brains receive and store other information,” she said.
“Our study fills this knowledge gap and shows that children’s poor attention leads them to retain more information about the world than adults,” Jung said.
Develop an instinct to know who is really paying attention
Finn says the study has “no direct implications” for children with ADHD who were not the focus of the researchers’ investigation.
But Bass says she realizes that having a second activity to engage in, like doodling or playing spinner, can be beneficial in improving attention for kids with ADHD.
Bass is all too familiar with ADHD because she had it herself as a child and continues to have trouble paying attention even into adulthood. She noted that sometimes an extremely interesting subject that captures a child’s attention can cause the child to become too focused on it and not need another activity at the same time to pay attention. But many lessons in school don’t have that kind of magnetic appeal to young people, and for them, a “mindless activity” can improve their ability to pay attention.
Talya Roth teaches “twice exceptional” fourth and fifth graders who have ADHD and autism. Roth also found that giving students a spinner or allowing them to draw during lessons does not detract from their ability to pay attention to lesson material and may even improve it.
“I have literally had students at the end of the day who couldn’t sit in their chairs anymore and would do a handstand,” he said. “I was teaching in my regular class and asking questions, and they would stop moving and give me a thoughtful answer, not just ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ making it clear that they were paying attention and absorbing the information.”
Roth, who is based in New York, encourages parents and teachers to recognize that attention in children is complex and even a child who appears to be inattentive may actually be paying attention.
Bass adds that it takes a lot of intuition and discretion for teachers to recognize when a child is interacting with the material and when they are more focused on the external activity, such as spinner. “But you develop an instinct,” she said.
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