FIDGET TOYS
Probably you will see people bouncing their legs up and down, turning pens over and over in their hands, chewing on things, sucking on their lower lips and probably you’re doing it too!
All seemingly completely unconscious. Fidget toys are self-regulation tools to help with focus, attention, calming, and active listening.
Cognitive research suggests that fidgeting is associated with how stimulated we are. That is, fidgeting may be a self-regulation mechanism to help us boost or lower our attention levels depending on what is required, either calming or energizing us.
This means fidgeting may indicate a problem with attention. But it might also be the solution. Fidgeting could provide physiological stimulation to bring our attention and energy to a level that allows our minds to better focus on the task at hand.
Supporting this, one study found that people who were allowed to doodle while monitoring a phone conversation for details remembered more facts later than those who weren’t.