The newest fidget craze is popping toys. Adults and kids all over the world have been buying up this endlessly reusable version of a longtime favorite fidget activity: popping bubble wrap. Made of silicone and coming in a range of colors, shapes and sizes, they are half-sphere “bubbles” that can be pushed in, making a satisfying soft popping sound. After “popping” them all, you can turn the toy over and start again from the other side.
Some might remember the fidget spinner craze of 2017 and the controversy that these devices caused, with some teachers even banning them from classrooms. Popping toys raise the perennial question of whether and when fidget toys might be useful. Are they a nuisance? Or could having them help you or your children manage pandemic stress and fuzzy thinking?
It’s not the same - nowhere near as satisfying as the real thing, and that’s coming from both the child on the spectrum and myself, avid bubble wrap poppers that we are. They have them available in the sensory kits at her school, and she got bought a couple of variations last year within the family, but they’ve not been a hit, because unless it’s purely the sound that does it for you, they just don’t have the same tactile input. Even the sound isn’t ‘right’, though. However, I would say they’re more useful as a distraction/sensory input than fidget spinners ever were. Those were almost collectible to Bod’s generation in the way I remember Pogs and mini boglins being when I was in primary school in the late 80s/early 90s. Also like mini boglins, they were also very easily weaponised in our experience! 👀😂
Fidgeting has always been a thing. I am the Satan spawn that is the perennial pen clicker. Realising this, I began only buying biros without clickers to go to meetings with, but unfortunately turned into a pen tapper/spinner instead. I also have form as a pen chewer. Whilst there is a legitimate market behind it, the cynic in me says that all that’s happened is they’ve monetised needs humans have had for centuries.
I don’t know about the pandemic and thinking, but these bubbles affect somehow when it comes to stressing. As a child, and even now, I love to pop these balls, especially when I'm nervous. But in fact, this is not the only thing I love to do. When I was a child, I had such a smallsmart.co.uk/products/m... and I really loved looking at these toys and spinning them in circles until I felt dizzy, and when my brain and eyes got tired, I fell asleep calmly.
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