When we see children wriggling and fiddling, we assume they are not paying attention to what is going on and that therefore their learning will be impaired. Some of us think of these high levels of activity as a modern problem, brought about in our world by a society that increasingly rewards sedentary activities (for example, for me a teaching load of 100 students means 50-75 hours of marking to be completed in, if possible, two weeks – a LOT of time sitting at a computer).

However, thinking of this as a modern problem (perhaps exacerbated by IT) does not recognise the high levels of activity common throughout our history. Think about the activity of English Victorian women for example who seldom sat down without engaging in needlework, or the productivity of American pioneer women who produced incredible patchwork. Think about the many cultures where tools to keep busy fingers active were a normal part of life: rosaries for Catholics, finger stones in much of Southern Europe and even chewing tobacco and smoking in many countries. How often in the past did restless fingers reach for a cigarette or a pipe?

Human beings need to move and the expectation that we can sit still for hours on end as adults is unhealthy. We know that excessive screen-time (watching TV for example) is associated with obesity and screen-time at night impacts on melatonin production which interferes with circadian rhythm negatively impacting on sleep cycles. This kind of sitting still is problematic for us all. In addition to its impact on our wellbeing, we know that for some children (and adults) sitting still for long periods of time is totally unproductive – in order to succeed, so much attention has to be paid to keeping still there is little energy left over.

It is interesting that in recent months, we are seeing the increasing popularity of fidget spinners – these are becoming a trendy way for children to fiddle with something and keep active. For some children this is a valuable strategy that can be used to help them concentrate; for others it can become a major distraction.

Many highly productive adults use a range of techniques to help engage their attention and we can support highly active children to experiment with these to determine what works best for each child. Strategies involve doing more than one thing at once – accompanying listening and engaging with some kind of activity that helps children concentrate: doodling, taking notes, using a fidget spinner, twirling a pen, twiddling with hair, jiggling feet, and tapping fingers are all ways of keeping the body active in order for the mind to engage and concentrate.

Rather than discourage these activities because we assume they are distracting children from engaging, we need to observe each individual child and determine which are actually helpful. Then we can help children develop personal strategies that work for them so that they can learn to regulate their own attention in order to fully engage in learning.