I start with “ugh!” because I paid for the Special Edition of TIME today on THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING and opened it up by chance to an article with a picture of a child holding a fidget spinner with the caption, “Fidget spinners can help children with ADHD focus.” WT*? I thought. Is the rest of the magazine going to present false claims? I scoured through the one-page article looking for a research citation, wondering whether the latest research shows something different than earlier studies (Fidgeting: Spin vs. Science).
Well, the article had no research cited. So I pulled up pubmed.gov to check on the latest. I found a 2020 study. As prior research, it shows that fidget spinners DECREASE kids’ ability to focus (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29676193/).
The FIU researchers found, “Children’s use of fidget spinners was associated with poorer attention across both phases of treatment.” They concluded, “Fidget spinners negatively influence young children with ADHD’s attentional functioning, even in the context of an evidence-based classroom intervention.”
A glance at other recent research revealed that there are now battery-powered fidget spinners that some kids are swallowing.
So I ended up learning something at least.
Tonya Lippert 
Research can be biased.
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Thanks for engaging! Yes, there’s rigorous research and less rigorous research out there. I paste all the ones I cite so everyone can read it and judge for themselves. I will say the research I’m citing finds it’s the visual aspect of fidget spinners that detracts from attention. Fidgeting (moving around) itself actually increases the ability of kids with ADHD to focus (I have another post on this here somewhere). So fidgeting helps. Fidget spinners that you are looking at while at school or whatever hurts attention. Overall this is what various studies say. I hope this clarifies some things.
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