Bluey is the titular character in a kid’s television show from Australia. The show is available in America through Disney+, but some of the episodes are censored or outright excluded due to the purity culture here in the States. She starts the show at the age of 6 and according to my website analytics, many people are concerned about her neurotype. So what behaviors does Bluey exhibit that would have people Googling if she is autistic?
I think the first taste of Bluey’s differences compared to her peers is in the episode Wagon Ride (s1 ep24). This is demonstrated through her inability to be patient and self-entertain while her dad keeps making stops to talk to friends and neighbors. Her younger sister, Bingo, is 4 by comparison and does this easily. In fact, their dad even suggests to Bluey to look to her sister for an idea of how to accomplish this task.
In Hide and Seek (s1 ep42), the entire episode is about how Bluey is easily distracted and forgets she is playing hide and seek with her family. Her parents and sister spend a good amount of time hiding while Bluey goes and plays other things until she wonders where everyone is and takes a quiet moment to reflect and eventually remember that she was playing. At the beginning, it even shows that this is a common event because they were originally reluctant to play with her with how many times she’s forgotten.
Most people start wondering if there’s something different about Bluey by the time they watch the Movies (s2 ep28) episode. This is because Bluey directly compares herself to her friends saying she’s the only one who hasn’t watched this movie and her dad says it’s because she’s sensitive. Sensitive to what, exactly? Loud noises? Horror? It seems like Bluey does not like watching scary scenes as she spends the episode trying to ignore what’s going on with the “scary bit” as Bingo acts like a typical 4-year-old in a movie theatre.
A lesser obvious characteristic but no less impressive is Bluey’s insight in the episode Bin Night (s2 ep32). Near the end, neither Bandit nor their neighbor know if it’s recycling night, and Bluey points out that it’s only both bins when it’s a full moon, half moon, or new moon and that tonight is none of those. She’s observed the pattern between bin nights and the cycle of the moon and uses that knowledge to make sense of her world.
While it may not be noteworthy, the episode in Baby Race (s2 ep 47) is about Bluey as a baby. Since Bluey bum-shuffled backwards instead of crawling first, and she learned how to walk later than her neighbor, she might be behind on her milestones. Or maybe Juno was early. Who knows. These types of milestones aren’t necessarily indicators of autism anyway.
And finally, I think the most helpful information we’ve learned about Bluey to [American] date is in the episode Mini Bluey (s3 ep6) where she teaches Bingo on how to act like her. Most notable are the random and repetitive noises and her constant talking. Is she simply vocal stimming? Maybe! However, we don’t see this behavior much outside this episode.
In conclusion, I don’t think Bluey is autistic, at least not based on what we’ve seen of her so far (and we haven’t seen the second half of season 3 yet in America).
