Anti-anxiety fidget spinner toys have become a crazed fad. The devices are a must-have for the in crowd at schools. Like any parent of a child on the Autism spectrum, searching for anything that will assist your efforts to calm, focus and soothe your child is an obsession. Doubly so for this parent also on the spectrum. In this post, I review the various fidget toys and devices we use and have tried with our special Aspie son.
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder have difficulty with executive functioning and self-regulation. A good primer on executive function and self-regulation may be linked to here. In effect, people with ASD may experience poor capacity to organize sensory input for subsequent regulation. In simple terms, information received through our five senses may or may not be categorized by our brain sufficient for us to determine how to react in a socially-appropriate manner. Fidgeting may actually assist people on ASD with executive function and self-regulation.
Read the rest of the post on the Odd Dad Blog.
