Roche, MA;
Back, E;
Van Herwegen, J;
(2023)
Parental perspectives on the use of fidget toys and sensory-seeking profiles in autistic and neurotypical children.
Current Psychology
10.1007/s12144-023-05483-3.
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Abstract
This study addresses the research gap concerning whether the use of fidget toys or fidget spinners specifically are perceived to support children and positively influence their behavioural and emotional wellbeing as well as investigating how these perceptions relate to children’s sensory-seeking profiles. 129 parents/carers of autistic children (n = 53) and neurotypical (NT) children (n = 76) completed an online survey. The survey consisted of questions relating to the benefits and risks of fidget toys as well as statements about their own child’s fidget toy use. The Sensory Profile 2 was used to obtain parents perspectives on their child’s sensory behaviours. The main findings demonstrated that parents of autistic children perceived fidget toys and fidget spinners to be overall more beneficial than NT parents, especially in relation to reducing anxiety. Higher sensory-seeking scores for both autistic children and NT children were associated with greater parental agreement for fidget toys and fidget spinners being beneficial. Parents of autistic children with higher sensory seeking scores found fidget toys to reduce anxiety and spinners to be less distracting. Whereas, parents of NT children with higher sensory seeking scores perceived both fidget toys and spinners to help their child concentrate. Implications include that educators should consider parental views when forming policies about the use of fidget toys. Findings also imply that the sensory profiles of autistic and NT students should be considered in relation to the use of fidget toys.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Parental perspectives on the use of fidget toys and sensory-seeking profiles in autistic and neurotypical children |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s12144-023-05483-3 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05483-3 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10184900 |
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