Blogs Fidget spinners have been all over the news recently, and with good reason as fidgets can help students self-regulate and stay in control. This video blog gives you some great tips and ideas for using handheld fidgets for the classroom to help your students.
Video Transcript
Hi, I’m Keely from Learners Edge.
And I have a couple tips for you to work with students who may have a hard time staying focused. Or maybe their little hands are fidgety. This could be a student with ADHD or sensory issues. It might even be a student with anxiety. So here are some fidgets that might be useful for working with those students.
The first tip I like to give is taking a long piece of Velcro and just putting it right underneath their desk. What they can do as you’re teaching, or if they’re getting anxious, they can just rub their hands along the bottom of the desk to get that tactile input.
Another thing that we’ve done before is we’ve tried some TheraBand to the bottom of the student’s chair. And it allows them to kick at the TheraBand or push down on the TheraBand, which allows for movement, but it’s not distracting to the rest of the class.
The last thing I want to share with you are just hand-held fidgets, which work really well when the teacher is giving instruction or lecturing. And not all students do well with all types of fidgets.
You’re going to have to do some trial and error. I have a few things here.
This one has a tactile piece to it. There’s some color and noise that goes along with it as well. This could be used really well, if you have a student who likes to talk out. And if they’re holding it, it means that they can’t talk. But when they give it away, then they are able to share their thoughts.
We also have some stretchy guys here. This works for some students. Here’s a ball with some glitter and another ball inside, just to give some visual input. And then sometimes little guys would like to use cars and just kind of roll the wheels across their fingers.
These are all different things that can be used to help students stay on task and focused.
Learners Edge is passionately committed to providing you with continuing education coursework, materials, and tools that will help you succeed in your classroom and in your career.
Offering more than 100 print-based or online courses for teachers, you can earn the graduate credit you need for salary advancement and meet your professional development needs. Contact us today to get started!
