The Effects of Fidget Spinners on Oral Reading Fluency

Abstract

Research on the effectiveness of fidget spinner use in the classroom to increase academic performance and behavior has had mixed results, with no studies evaluating the use of fidget spinners on reading performance. The current study examined the effects of using a fidget spinner on Aimsweb oral reading fluency probes for 66 students in the 3^rd through 5^th grades at an inner-city public charter school. Students completed an acceptability measure determining whether they liked using the fidget spinner and if they thought it helped them. Results indicated that the fidget spinner use neither significantly increased nor decreased student reading fluency, even for those students who indicated they read more when using the fidget spinner. The current study suggests that even if the fidget spinner does not produce a therapeutic effect there are no significant negative effects on student reading fluency.

Keywords:

• Fidgets
• academic performance
• reading fluency
• student acceptability

Disclosure statement

Kathleen B. Aspiranti declares she has no conflict of interest; Ella Schoenen declares she has no conflict of interest; David M. Hulac declares he has no conflict of interest

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained for all participants included in the study.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.