Fidget toys and gadgets can be life-saving for autistic people. The question “Are fidget toys good for autism?” is so important and valuable to answer. The short answer is that sensory toys are hugely beneficial for autistic people.
You might be the parent of an autistic child. Or maybe you’re a healthcare professional looking into options for autistic people in your life. Maybe you’re autistic.
Fidget tools can greatly increase an autistic person’s ability to self-soothe, regulate emotions, and obtain stress relief. The longer answer consists of multiple facets for you to consider as you look into purchasing adult- and child-friendly fidgets for autistic people.
Check out seven reasons why fidgets help autistic people navigate life, with a few specific examples of the best fidget toys at the end of this blog.
This post is all about the question, “Are fidget toys good for Autism?”
What is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)?
Autism Spectrum Disorder is a natural variation in how some people think, feel, and experience the world. Autistic people often process social cues, sensory input, and routines differently—and that’s not a flaw, just a difference.
While autism can come with challenges like sensory overwhelm or social fatigue from social interaction, it also brings unique strengths, like deep focus, creativity, and strong values around fairness and honesty.
Autism is a spectrum, which means it shows up in many different ways from person to person. For a lot of women, autism can go unnoticed for years, especially if they’ve gotten really good at “masking” or copying social behaviors to fit in. That can be exhausting and confusing.
But finding out you’re autistic can be a huge relief. Finally being able to put words to your experiences can help you see that you have a different neurotype than allistic (non-autistic) people and give you valuable tools to accommodate your neurotype.
Autism isn’t something that needs to be fixed. It’s part of neurodiversity—a reminder that there’s no one “right” way to be human. Embracing an autistic identity can be a powerful step toward self-understanding, self-acceptance, and connection with a community that gets it.
Please note that we use identity-first language at Knockoff Therapy because of the overwhelming preference for identity-first language in the autistic community.
ARE FIDGET TOYS GOOD FOR AUTISM:
1. Autistic youth typically like to engage in repetitive motion
While many theories have guesses as to why autistic brains function differently than neurotypical brains, we do know that autistic individuals can self-soothe via repetitive motion.
Autistic people typically get overstimulated and experience sensory overload much faster than neurotypicals. They are processing so much more information constantly than neurotypicals are.
It makes sense that if you hear the refrigerator buzzing, family members talking in a different room, and someone eating in the dining room, you’d feel like there was too much information flowing into your brain at once.
Then, the tag on the back of your shirt, irritating your skin, becomes the thing that finally takes you past your comfort level. That’s what people may refer to as a “meltdown,” which can look very different for every autistic person.
In trying to regulate and self-soothe, autistic people tend to have an excess of energy that can come out in repetitive motion and stimming even when they’re not aware they’re doing it. This is why the presence of a fidget toy can help an autistic person regulate their emotions.
This happens on top of all of the information they are constantly processing. This doesn’t even touch on the processing they do during social interactions, which we will address later on.
2. Fidgets can be life-changing for kids in a classroom setting
Different types of fidget toys and gadgets can help autistic people in many ways. They are versatile tools that can direct some anxious and nervous energy into an object that helps an autistic person self-soothe.
Tactile fidget tools can be satisfying and provide autistic children and adults with satisfying sensory experiences. For example, an autistic person may need some tactile stimulation and use a clicking toy that will also serve as auditory stimulation because of the clicks it makes.
Classroom settings can be hugely challenging for an autistic child who needs to be in constant movement. Maybe that child is trying to focus on a teacher talking, who unintentionally expects eye contact from young children.
Maybe the air conditioning is also running in the classroom, which the child is trying to ignore to focus on the teacher, while the child also focuses on providing eye contact, though the child has no understanding of what the right amount of socially acceptable eye contact is.
All of that going on in a child’s head makes it so much clearer as to why sensory and other types of toys can give autistic children a chance to release the energy they are feeling from everything they are managing in a classroom setting through some type of sensory outlet.
3. Think of fidgeting as a coping mechanism
Fidgeting is a coping mechanism for neurodivergent children. And if you’re new to the world of Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), neurodivergent refers to brains that function differently than the “average” person.
Regardless, fidgeting is a coping skill that can greatly increase an autistic person’s zone of tolerance. Your zone of tolerance refers to the area within which you can react to things around you without becoming emotionally dysregulated.
In less therapist-type language, your zone of tolerance really is just your ability to manage your emotions. Fidgets increase zones of tolerance by giving autistic people one more tool they can use to manage their emotions.
Fidgets act as coping mechanisms in multiple ways, from relieving excess energy to providing tactile stimulation and focusing an autistic person’s brain on a chosen object.
4. Fidgets help autistic kids release excess energy
There’s a saying in the autistic community: “When you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person.” And that’s still true even when talking about fidgets.
Some autistic people are essentially walking balls of energy who are constantly looking for ways to manage their emotions through repetitive motion and other coping skills. Fidgets provide them with a tactile, repetitive way to release that energy.
When autistic people don’t use a fidget to release their energy, one of a few things happens. That person spends mental energy attempting to keep their bodies still. Or that person bounces their knee, spins in their chair, or finds another more obvious repetitive motion.
Or maybe that person loses all ability to be present and zones out as a dissociative trauma response. Needless to say, fidgets can benefit autistic kids in multiple ways to release the pent-up energy they’re experiencing and focus that energy using a healthy coping skill.
5. The right fidget toys can be a game-changer for autistic youth
The use of fidget toys and gadgets is life-changing for autistic youth. Fidgets help autistic people to direct their energy and natural repetitive motion into something that may be less harmful and disruptive than what autistic people might otherwise do.
Instead of spinning around in a chair while in school or jumping up and down, an autistic person can pop a fidget, squeeze a stress ball, or spin a fidget spinner. This means that autistic youth have to find the right fidget for themselves.
Every autistic person is different, and their natural fidgeting will look different too. For some people, a small amount of discomfort, like a spiky fidget, will decrease the likelihood of self-harm.
For others, a clicking sensation can replace a tapping noise they’d otherwise make. As you’ll notice, fidgets can be about masking symptoms as much as they are about increasing the ability of an autistic youth to self-soothe.
6. Fidgeting can help kids navigate sensory processing issues
“Sensory processing issues” is a big umbrella term that can honestly place too much blame on autistic people. The concept of sensory issues may also be inaccurate to the experience of many autistic people. It can definitely be accurate for those with sensory processing disorders.
For others, the problem is literally that too much information enters the autistic brain without the ability to filter it the way a neurotypical is able. This means that autistic people struggle to process information because they’re already processing a bunch of information.
This happens whether they want to or not. It’s similar to being on the phone with someone. Imagine they are talking to you when all of a sudden, another person joins the call. You didn’t consent to that, and you weren’t warned. They just joined. So, you accept it and move on.
Then, another person joins, and everyone is talking at the same time. The worst part is that, as new people join without warning or consent, no one acknowledges the new people joining. So, you’re left wondering why you’re the only one bothered by the new people joining.
Now, there is no way for you to join in the conversation because you can’t focus on one person, whether you wanted to or not. Fidgeting helps autistic people tolerate the sensory information for a variety of reasons that are unique to both ASD and each autistic person’s experience.
7. Fidgeting gives people the chance to control their sensory stimulation
Autistic people often struggle with control. They can’t control what information their brains process, they sometimes can’t control how much information they are exposed to, and they can’t control when people misunderstand them in social situations.
Therefore, it’s important for autistic people to take ownership over the things they can control. This is why accommodations like earphones, noise dampeners, and dimmed lights can be so meaningful.
Fidgeting is a method of control that allows autistic people to choose how to meet their sensory needs in the moment.
Maybe they want to feel deep pressure and use a stress ball. Maybe they want to tap the table and click a button instead. Or maybe they want to blast music in their headphones. While ASD may be full of contradictions, it’s a safe bet that control plays a role in that.
Examples of Awesome Autism Fidget Toys and Items
1. Chewable toys
Eating can be soothing for autistic people and people in general. Chewable stim toys can be helpful to create that same feeling of soothing without actually needing to ingest anything.
2. Essential oils
Olfactory stimulation is powerful for autistic people. Not every autistic person likes to smell strong smells, while others crave intense sensory input or just the right amount of sensory input.
Since both hypo- and hyper-sensitivity are features of Autism, it makes sense that essential oils could be a form of “fidgeting” or controlling stimulation for autistic people.
3. Fidget cube and Stimagz
Sometimes, the best type of fidget is the one that takes various shapes depending on what the fidgeter wants and needs in the moment. Some autistic people thrive with one motion that repeats constantly, and they self-soothe from that.
Sometimes, autistic people need variation to stay interested in stimulated by a fidget. Fidget cubes and Stimagz both offer that. Neurodivergent writers at Knockoff Therapy use Stimagz and can verify how helpful they have been.
4. Fidget spinners
Fidget spinners are probably the most well-known of sensory fidget toys because of the pop culture moment they had in recent years. They can be super helpful when they’re helpful.
However, being well-known is not the same thing as being truly beneficial for the neurodivergent people who use fidgets the most.
So, take this as a sign that fidget spinners can be great, and they can also be an overly-simplistic fun toy, more than a tool. Sometimes, fidgets may not actually accomplish the goal of increasing emotional regulation and self-soothing as much as lesser-known fidgets can.
