The newest toy craze to hit school playgrounds came to my attention this weekend, writes Nicola Brown. 

When my boyfriend's 13 year-old-younger brother took a break from being the quintessential petulant teenager to enlighten us about the playground "it" toy, I must admit I was intrigued.

With a grown-up sibling myself and no children as of yet, the latest craze's factor less and less into my daily life. Yet with the mere mention of these school ground games, it's amazing how quickly it can transport you back to an age when keeping up with the latest fad seemed all but essential to your playground value.

Fidget spinners, this season's hottest toy, are advertised as an antidote for low attention spans, anxiety and autism.

The small, ball-bearing contraptions allow the user to rotate between their fingers, with the momentum of the spin offering a pleasing sensory experience.

Meanwhile the challenge of tossing, twirling and shifting between hands has generated a plethora of how-to YouTube videos.

Sounds a little too simple, right? Yet if memory serves, the more easy and user-friendly a toy or craze, the more popular - I'm looking at you, Pogs.

It's easy to dismiss these fads as silly, but after giving it a go myself in the name of journalistic research of course, I can't deny the appeal - albeit perhaps not enough to keep me entertained for more than 20 minutes.

My first thought after being given an instructional demo was how simple yet oddly satisfying the toy was. Whilst many sources have come out to quash the idea it can help focus wandering attention spans, there's no denying that for however many minutes you commit, your eyes and hands are hooked.

But for all the kids who love them, my thoughts are just as many teachers will hate them, with it being reported that the toy is being banned in classrooms across the country.

With the argument that they instead add to the chaos of a classroom when the temptation to use them aside from lunch breaks gets too much, when several fidget spinners are used, simultaneously omitting a spinning noise, it's easy to picture children's eyes and ears wandering all over the place.

My own childhood "it" toys ranged from Beanie Babies to Pokemon cards to yoyo's. There will arguably always be games that capture the Zeitgeist of the time and young people's attentions.

Though arguably it's not just children who need the momentary relief of a toy, with Forbes' even suggesting fidget spinners are the must-have office toy for 2017.

Perhaps even in busy adult working lives, we never really escape the need for a distraction from work and a chance to indulge in child's play.