Here’s the hottest new hard-to-find distraction: the fidget spinner

Have you heard about the hottest new toy of the spring? It isn’t a new video game console or some other high-tech gadget. It’s a low-tech, inexpensive device called a fidget spinner.

Stores can’t keep it in stock, and teachers are banning it from classrooms because of the disruption.

Fidget spinners are smaller than your palm, with two or three prongs with circles in them, along with a circular pad in the middle where you hold the device with your finger and thumb and spin it. USA Today reports that manufacturers say the gadgets aren’t just fun to play with, but also help people with ADHD, anxiety, autism and various other conditions.

The demand for these devices is coming from children, college students and adults who are looking to help release nervous energy or stop fidgeting, reports the New York Post. The toys come in plastic, brass, steel or copper and retail for $5 to $7.

Walmart, Toys ’R’ Us and other stores are having a hard time keeping the products in stock nationwide, according to media reports, and that seemed to be the case over the weekend after a search in half a dozen Olathe stores.

The consensus is that Amazon.com is the best place to find them at the moment.

College students are buying them ahead of finals, hoping they will help them focus.

While they were designed to help people focus, relieve stress and stop fidgeting, the fidget spinners are now becoming a distraction in some classrooms because of their popularity, according to an ABC report.

That, too, seems to be the case in Olathe, based on anecdotes from students.

Do you or you children have yours yet?

This story was originally published April 30, 2017 at 11:47 AM with the headline "Here’s the hottest new hard-to-find distraction: the fidget spinner."