Fidgets: Toys or Tools

Are fidgets just toys that should be put away at the sound of the bell?  Are fidgets really a Special Needs’ tool to be used all day at home and in class with the blessing of both parents and teachers and on the recommendation of professionals?

Before choosing sides about the appropriate use of fidgets, one must understand the basic premise of their usefulness and what problems they can alleviate.

Many children can rarely sit still. It is not because they do not want to but because they simply cannot. These children have an uncontrollable urge to move or fidget. Their overwhelming need of movement is beyond their control. Punishment is counterproductive. For many, their brains are telling their bodies to get up and move to help them listen and attend BETTER.

According to Sydney Zentall, Ph.D., of Purdue University, an activity that uses a sense other than that required for the primary task — listening to music while reading a social studies textbook — can enhance performance in children with ADHD. Doing two things at once, she found, focuses the brain on the primary task.

Based on the collected stories of hundreds of people, authors Roland Rotz, Ph.D. — a licensed child and adult psychologist — and Sarah D. Wright, M.S., A.C.T. – a professional AD/HD coach – propose sifting the paradigm: Give yourself permission to fidget. “Restlessness is not just an expression of trying to ‘get out of the fidgets’ in order to become calm. It is rather an attempt to self-arouse to become focused.” So there we have it, a fidget is used to de-stress the body and help increase focus and attention.

Fidgets have particular properties that intrigue sensory systems. The premise is that children with special needs with learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Tourette’s syndrome, autism, anxiety disorder or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), reduce their fidgeting and increase their focus through the handling of a fidget. Busy the hands to calm the mind.

Most adults can relate to a fidget, as they frequently use their own brand of fidget every day. For example, we often doodle, wind and unwind the telephone cord, or play with our pen. We do this naturally, almost subconsciously, to keep focused, and our brain thinking better. A little boy's answer about his new toy was: "No, a toy is for playing, this is a fidget, it is for thinking."

Fidgeting is moving away from its old stigma and now it is considered an accepted coping mechanism to stay on task. Fidgeting facilitates focus for listening, talking and thinking? It is now accepted that excessive movement does NOT prevent learning but actually facilitates it.

Understanding what is going on in these Special Needs children and proactively choosing an appropriate strategy is the essence of the fidget approach. Occupational therapist and teachers agree that fidgets effectively increase engagement and on-task behavior in learners.

To sum it up, NO, fidgets are not toys. The chewable fidgets like Kid Companions chewelry HAVE a rightful place in school. The use of fidgets should be among the accommodations allowed in schools and noted in IEP's.  Fidgets are a necessary coping tool and a life saver to parents, to kids and  naturally to teachers.

What are the qualities you and your child look for in a fidget?

Related Posts:
Hyperactive, Impulsive, Inattentive Children
Tactics Tackling Homework With Your ADHD Child

Children and Teens With ADHD and Depression
Michael Phelps ~ ADHD Did Not Stop Him
Chewing and Biting Tip- Chewing Is a Form Of Moving

What Are Some Symptoms of Juvenile Bipolar Disorder?

When Bipolar Disorder is finally diagnosed in an individual, parents will most often confess that since their child was a toddler, they KNEW something was not just right.  Since toddlerhood, their child had had a very difficult time to settle for the night, had extreme difficulty sleeping through the night, experienced severe separation anxiety and had always had lots of sensory issues.

The visits to their professional support had probably been in vain as all the above complaints could be attributed to many causes. These parents are not alone because it is a fact that Bipolar Disorder is often misdiagnosed or overlooked.

The Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation website states that Bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness) affects close to 1 million children and adolescents in the United States at any given time. Recent studies have found that from the time of initial manifestation of symptoms, it takes an average of ten years before a diagnosis is made. This is due in part because its symptoms overlap those of other disorders, including ADHD, depression, or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

What is different between adult and juvenile bipolar disorder?

In adults, the mood cycles of mania and depression can last several days or weeks. In children, the cycling pattern is called ultra-ultra rapid. Their moods fluctuate multiple times in a day. These children seem to have problems getting going in the morning and have more active moods in the afternoon and evening.

The following are other Red Flag signs of juvenile bipolar disorder:

*Children appear hyperactive, fidgety, frustrated, inattentive, restless …these symptoms are much like ADHD but add to this the following symptoms.

*Children have decreased need for sleep, will sleep only 4-6 hours and are not tired the next day. Bipolar kids tend to experience a range of sleep disturbances that include night terrors and nightmares - often with images of gore and mutilation and themes of bodily threat and parental abandonment - sleep-walking, teeth-grinding, and bed-wetting.

*Children have grandiose behaviors ~an inflated self-esteem or think they have special powers, like Superman. Children act as if rules were not made for them and take unbelievable, dangerous risks.

*Children will suffer high levels of frustration. The word “NO” will make them throw a temper tantrum that lasts a long time. These tantrums may even be accompanied with aggression. All these negative behaviors may never be shown outside the home. Or for some children, it is the exact opposite where parents see their good sides and the school sees their violent side.

*Children have flight of ideas and jump from topic to topic becoming unusually talkative and talk faster than usual.

*Children may be unreasonably silly, giddy or happy.

* Children have sudden shifts in mood making them bored, withdrawn, wishing they were never born. And yes, children can even be suicidal.

*Children may be bossy to their peers and even to adults. Some children can be insolent but other children are well-liked and want to make friends. Some will have difficulty making transitions and become argumentative.

*Children develop social phobia and want to be alone. They loose interest or pleasure in activities they normally enjoyed. They feel tired, worthless and guilty about unreasonable things.

*Some children even have hallucinations, they see insects or snakes, hear voices, or hear satanic figures. Some have delusions (irrational fears or beliefs).

In another post I will tell you about the Fear-of-Harm phenotype (FOH). This group of children have a more severe form of pediatric bipolar disorder with higher frequency and severity of manic and depressive symptoms, greater rates of hospitalization and greater likelihood of school performance difficulties.

If any of these RED FLAGS make you think your child has bipolar disorder DO NOT WAIT. Seek professional help immediately and do not stop until the right care has been found for your child. The first line of treatment is usually to stabilize the child's mood and to treat sleep disturbances and psychotic symptoms if present.

The following sites are a wealth of information for parents…use them, arm yourself with knowledge to advocate for your child. When my child was struggling through undiagnosed bipolar disorder, none of this was available.

Resources

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI)

1-800-950-6264,  http://www.nami.org/

Mental Health America a change of name from (National Mental Health Association (NMHA)

1-703-684-7722, http://www.nmha.org/

Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation (CABF)

1-847-256-8525, http://www.bpkids.org/ or http://www.cabf.org/

Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation (JBRF)

http://www.bpchildresearch.org/

Depressive & Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA)

1-800-826-3632, http://www.dbsalliance.org/

Bipolar Children Newsletter

http://www.bpchildren.com/

Parenting Bipolars: A Survival Guide for Parents

http://www.parentingbipolars.com/

Personal Reason to Rejoice About New Study on Tourette Syndrome

While searching Google for the simplest way to describe Tourette Syndrome, I had a flash back to fifteen years ago when I received a frantic call from our

daughter at the University of Ottawa announcing that she had been diagnosed with TS. Immediately after the call, I rushed to research what was Tourette. For years we had sought answers and treatments to help our attractive, above average, intelligent daughter deal with the demons crowding her life.

My search, those many years ago, finally let us understand what our daughter had to confront every day and night. Living in a rural Nova Scotia area with hardly any professional support, we struggled through her childhood and through her teen years. Finally specialists in the Ottawa area had but an end to our questioning and had given us a diagnoses to explain our life coping with unknown symptoms. That day, I learned another new word: other comorbid conditions. The same struggles continued, only now we had names for these demons.

Wikipedia tells us: “Tourette syndrome, or simply Tourette's or TS is an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by the presence of multiple physical (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic; these tics characteristically wax and wane. Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are often associated with Tourette's.

Undiagnosed comorbid conditions may result in functional impairment, and it is necessary to identify and treat these conditions to improve functioning. Complications may include depression, sleep problems, social discomfort and self-injury.” With these symptoms challenging their every day, you can see why news about a possible break in the search for treatment of TS is very exciting.

A study, led by Matthew State, M.D., published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Yale School of Medicine researchers May 5th 2010, gives hope for treatment of Tourette syndrome (TS).

The Yale researchers worked with a father and all eight of his children who had Tourette syndrome. The State lab took DNA samples of all members of this family and were able to identify a rare mutation in a gene called 1-histidine de carboxylase (HDC) in the samples from the TS members. This gene makes a protein that is required for the production of histamine. Histamine has a role in allergic response and is also a neurotransmitter that influences a variety of brain functions. They found that the mutated protein lost its function.

Strong evidence, that genetic mutations contribute to TS, had lead researchers in this direction for over a decade. Dr. State said that past work on brain histamine by other labs shows that mice with low levels of histamine are more prone to repetitive behaviors that are similar to human tics, and that increasing brain histamine reverses this problem.

"We were lucky to happen across a gene pointing to a well-studied area in neuroscience, pointed out State. There are several new medications in development that increase the release of brain histamine. Based on this genetic finding, these compounds would be good candidates for new treatments for Tourette."

As you can see, Tourette, like many other medical conditons, has many facets and grey areas for which the medical community has no answers. Let us hope the above gene mutation study results in real, long awaited answers …it was in 1884 that Gilles de la Tourette, using the name "maladie des tics", first described the symptoms and in his honor the illness was given his name.

Looking for more posts on Tourette? Check out:

Nix Your Tics! Eliminate Unwanted Tic Symptoms by Duncan McKinlay

Tourette Syndrome ~ Your Child, His Tics and School


Has your family been affected by Tourette Syndrome?