Get ready to Wiggle

[charliesmum]

zambinigirl, through her niece, has discovered the joy* that are The Wiggles. This is for her.

Brief background. Back when Charlie was still a toddler, and hadn't gotten his PDD/NOS diagnosis, and was not talking and having all sorts of problems, his day care du jour had a tape of The Wiggles, and one day the teacher told me that he loved them. It was the one thing he responded to over just about everything else. "What are The Wiggles?" I wondered, "Some cartoon worms or something?"

So I did a search on the good old interweb and found out who, exactly, The Wiggles were. I was immediately smitten. They didn't talk down, they didn't use dorky voices, and the music was pure pop rock, and very reminicent of The Monkees, at least for me. What clinched it was when I discovered they actually sang a cover of "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" originally done in the 80's by Split Enz.

So, I set off to find a tape for Charlie. This, back in the early days of 1999, wasn't bloody easy. They were just starting to break into the US riding on the annoying purple tale of a certain dinosaur. Some Barney videos had a clip from the Wiggles on it, but finding the Wiggles videos was not easy. I did, eventually find Yummy Yummy and we proceeded to wear it out. Charlie really responded to it. You have to understand, he was completely non-verbal, would have horrible temper tantrums, and had only just started to walk. When the Wiggles were on, he would listen, and dance and smile and laugh. And sing. He actually started using words because of The Wiggles. His first word was a very Ozzie accented "Teddy Bear".

Anyway, a few years later, in 2002, I had the opportunity to write an article for a magazine called Autism Asberger's Digest about the Wiggles, and managed to get a hold of their Publicity Manager, who arranged for us to meet with The Wiggles at their show in Wilkes Barre, PA (two hour drive, by the way), so I could arrange an interview, and get some photos.

Here are the photos of Charlie with The Wiggles. (forgive the quality, I don't have a great scanner)





Charlie was totally ahead of his time with The Wiggles, and now that he's just a bit too old for them, there are finally toys and videos and DVDs and CDs galore. Not to mention birthday stuff. His fifth birthday was a "Wiggles Party" but I had to make do with colored napkins and streamers. No Wiggles decorations for me.

*for a given value of joy, that is