Remember the explosion of fidget spinners into the market? Why were they so popular and do they actually have any usefulness you might have wondered. What we find is that fidgeting helps concentration more than you might have expected. Baoding ball users have known about this phenomenon since ancient times. Baoding balls where the original fidget spinners you could say. Now there are many studies that show keeping your hands busy actually helps the mind with concentration.
ADHD Research Found Fidgeting Improves Focus
John Ratey, M.D. studied the connection of the body to the brain. He found small physical activity such as fidgeting increases levels of neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine. These chemicals play key roles in the brain for focus and attention.
Another researcher, Sydney Zentrall, Ph.D., found a cause of attention deficit is because people get bored at tasks and tune out. Doing something else at the same time helps a person focus at the primary task.
Study Found Stress Balls Improved Learning
In one stress ball study, students were tested and observed before and after giving them stress balls in the classroom. What they found was the number of distractions decreased, attention span increased, and their performance improved. In one of the results, auditory learners performance increased by 15%, visual learners increased by 10%, and kinesthetic learners by 8%. One student with ADHD improved by 27%. Majority of the students agreed their improvements were because of the stress ball use.
Psychological Study Found Dual Tasks Improved Memory
A memory study done by the University of Plymouth tested people to recall names after listening to a recording. The recording was quite dull and the people were conditioned to be in a bored state by making them do another boring task first and then making them think they were about to go home. They found that the people who were listening while doing another task with their hands had 29% better memory recall. It showed that doing something with your hands, can help concentration and memory.
Fidgeting Children Learned More Quickly
Dr Pine of the University of Hertfordshire, studied school children allowing some to fidget while making another group keep their hands still. They discovered that the fidgeting children learned faster and got the correct answer more than the children not allowed to move.
Fidget with Baoding Balls for Better Concentration
Many more studies have similar findings, that the movement of the body affects your concentration and focus.
Being bored dulls the mind and your cognitive ability declines. Baoding balls are a tool to keep you alert. The use of them can keep your brain focused improving your concentration at the tasks you are doing.
