If you have watched a lot of Wiggles videos (and I have watched A LOT), you may have noticed that the Wiggles are special needs friendly. They don’t make a big deal out of it which is cool. They just include some special needs kids in videos.
For anyone who is wondering, The Wiggles are an Australian rock group that sings children’s songs. They have TV shows and videos. They also tour.
This is how we met the Wiggles. When they came through our fair city, we attended a “meet and greet” session with them. Ninety minutes before the concert they spent some time with a small group of families.
We were “on the list” so we arrived early. A representative from the Wiggles checked the list and let the few families in and escorted us to where the “meet and greet” would happen.
As we waited an extremely buff “Wiggly dancer” talked to us. Very friendly. Would you expect anything less from the Wiggles?
They sat us down in one of two sets of chairs waiting, and then The Wiggles came in. Sam, Murray, Jeff and Anthony. They were very cool. They obviously had to get ready and there were a number of families in the “meet and greet” but they didn’t make anyone feel rushed. They talked to us and best of all they were very cool to the little nonverbal guy flapping wildly with excitement. There was time for pictures.
It makes for a very long day. You show up early for the meet and greet and that is an hour and a half before the show, then there is the show. Our little guy got overloaded before the show was over but all was fine once we got of the main auditorium.
Jeff, Murray, Sam, Anthony (and you too Greg!), and all the Wiggly dancers past and present: thank you!
Left Brain Right Brain 
It’s wonderful to be able to read current information about the Wiggles. I haven’t been keeping up with them much since the new Wiggle came in.
Yes, they do have a reputation of being family-friendly. They are after all early childhood developmentalists as well as singers and instrumentalists.
I do remember very well their first big hit: “Get Ready to Wiggle” (1991, on a cassette), and then the advent and evolution of Dorothy the Dinosaur circa 1994-1995.
It is also good that the Wiggles don’t change their material for different cultures.
And it is good to see everyone having a “jolly good flap”!
At our very first special needs playschool we knew all the words to “rockabye your bear” because we were already wiggles fans. Still use it for imitation and partner games. Every mainstream teacher should learn “Shake your sillys out” so every kid in their classroom – including the Auties and Hypers, can have a bit of spin flap and twirl to prepare their concentration.
And my other claim to fame? I went to see the Cockroaches (actual pub rock band that the Wiggles were before) in Balmain Leagues Club when I was 15. They rocked then too.
xx
That’s cool you got to meet them, Guest Blogger! The Wiggles were my son’s first obsession, after he started watching TV at 18 months old. When he turned two, I took him to a Wiggles Live Concert on first row seats. He knew all the little dances, and didn’t sit down for a second. He was so cute doing the Wiggles’ choreographies that the camera people showed him on the screen several times. I remember thinking it was odd that he didn’t seem to notice the difference between seeing them live and on TV; he wasn’t startruck and looking at the stage a lot; he was basically rocking out to the songs. Back then he hadn’t been diagnosed yet.