Watching Bluey with Your Child: Conversation Starters and Language Tips

New to this topic? Start with our companion article: Why Bluey Is a Speech Pathologist's Dream: Language Lessons from Bluey

So your child loves Bluey. Most of the families we visit across Brisbane's south side and Logan have at least one episode on high rotation, and plenty of parents feel a little guilty about it. Here's the reassuring part: how you watch matters more than most of us expect. When a parent sits down, pauses, talks and hands the story back to the child, a program becomes a conversation (Strouse, O'Doherty & Troseth, 2013). This article is about doing that with Bluey without wrecking the fun.

One disclaimer: Speaking Speech Pathology isn't connected with Bluey, Ludo Studio or BBC Studios. Episode titles are as listed on the official site; everything else is in our own words.

Pause and Talk

The simplest change is the pause button. Whitehurst and colleagues (1988) found that children whose parents paused during picture books to comment and ask open questions pulled ahead in language within weeks, and Strouse and colleagues (2013) saw similar gains when parents did the same thing with video. If your child enjoys it, pausing now and then to comment on something that caught their eye is worth a try. The Bluey ideas below are suggestions, not a tested program.

• Comment more than you question. "Oh no, the balloon's heading for the fan!" says you're watching together, with no pressure to answer. Save questions for every third or fourth pause.
• Wonder aloud. "I wonder what Bingo's going to do now..." then wait. Count to five in your head. The gap is where the talking happens.
• Pick up what your child says and add a bit. If they say "Dad fell," try "Yes, Dad fell off the couch. He's pretending to be squashed."
• Keep pauses rare. Two or three in an episode is plenty. If your child groans, you've found today's limit.

Name the Feelings

Bluey is unusually good at showing emotions on characters' faces and in their voices, which makes it a ready-made feelings dictionary.

• Label what you see. "Bingo looks disappointed. Her shoulders went all droopy." Pairing the word with the body clue helps children spot it in real people later.
• Reach past happy and sad. Frustrated, nervous, proud, embarrassed, left out, relieved. These middle-sized words are the ones children often lack, and the show hands them to you on a plate.
• Link it to your child's day, lightly. "Remember when your tower fell over? That's the frustrated face." A passing comment, not a lesson.
• Let them disagree. If your child says angry and you thought scared, talk about it. There's no quiz answer.

Predict, Then Check

Guessing what happens next is one of the quietest, most useful comprehension skills a child can build, and Bluey's games follow patterns that make predicting easy.

• Pause right before the turning point. "The robot's gone a bit funny. What do you reckon happens next?"
• Accept any answer with interest, then watch and see. Being wrong is half the fun.
• With older children, ask what a character might be planning. It stretches them to think from someone else's point of view.

Retell It Afterwards

Retelling an episode at dinner or in the bath is a storytelling workout in disguise. Children who can put events in order, say who did what and why, and finish with how it ended are building the narrative skills that underpin reading and writing later. Our piece on the shape of a good story walks through that structure.

Prompts that help without turning into an interrogation:

• "Tell Nan what Bluey did today." A fresh listener is a great motivator.
• Offer the first bit and hand it over. "First, Bluey found a balloon, and then..."
• If your child skips the middle, ask one question to fill the gap and move on.
• Draw it. A three-box comic suits children who'd rather not talk it all through.

Play the Games in Real Life

This is where a lot of the language learning happens. Stagnitti and Lewis (2015) found that preschoolers whose pretend play was richer and better organised went on to have stronger vocabulary and story-retelling skills at school. Bluey hands you a stack of games your child already knows the rules to.

• Keepy Uppy. Keep a balloon off the floor, or a scarf or soft ball for younger children (bits of a burst balloon are a choking risk, so a grown-up stays close). Perfect for action words: tap, bump, dive, catch, missed. Add "nearly!" and "just in time!" for describing words. Our article on building verbs and describing words has more ideas.
• Magic Xylophone. One person has the freeze power, everyone else moves until the note sounds. Giving commands, waiting for a turn, swapping roles.
• Shadowlands. Only step on shadows to cross the park or the backyard. Great for position words (on, off, over, between) and for gentle negotiation about whether a rule can bend.
• Daddy Robot. The adult is the robot; the child gives instructions one at a time. Flip it and you'll see how well they follow two-step directions. A robot who misunderstands on purpose is both hilarious and very good practice.
• Octopus. Grown-up is the octopus, children sneak past. Play it your own way, as Chloe's dad learns. If your child wants a quiet octopus, or a one-armed one, that's their game design and worth following.

Episode Picks by Goal

Starting points, not prescriptions.

Keep It Low-Pressure

The Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines suggest no sedentary screen time under two and no more than an hour a day for two-to-five-year-olds, less being better, with reading, singing and storytelling alongside a caregiver encouraged instead (Australian Government Department of Health, 2021). Our take: Bluey is a lovely thing to share, and sharing is the point.

• If your child wants to watch in silence, let them. Talk afterwards.
• A child who recites whole scenes, lines up the Heeler figurines or wants the same episode daily isn't doing it wrong. That's their way into the story, and we can work with it.
• Not every child wants to play the games the way they're played on screen. Different play is still play.
• One good conversation a week beats ten strained ones.

If you'd like a hand working out which of these ideas suits your child, or you're wondering about their talking, understanding or play more generally, Speaking Speech Pathology offers mobile speech pathology across Brisbane's south side and Logan, in homes, early learning centres and by video. Get in touch and we'll chat about what might help. You can also read about how we use play in sessions for a feel of our approach.

Alexandra Bouwmeester is a Senior Speech Pathologist (MSPA, CPSP), certified in Hanen's It Takes Two to Talk, with over 14 years' experience and a mum of two boys. She offers mobile speech pathology to families across Brisbane's south side and Logan.

This article is general information and not a substitute for individualised speech pathology assessment or therapy. If you have concerns about your child, please speak with a qualified speech pathologist.

References

• Strouse, G. A., O'Doherty, K., & Troseth, G. L. (2013). Effective coviewing: Preschoolers' learning from video after a dialogic questioning intervention. Developmental Psychology, 49(12), 2368–2382.
• Whitehurst, G. J., Falco, F. L., Lonigan, C. J., Fischel, J. E., DeBaryshe, B. D., Valdez-Menchaca, M. C., & Caulfield, M. (1988). Accelerating language development through picture book reading. Developmental Psychology, 24(4), 552–559.
• Stagnitti, K., & Lewis, F. M. (2015). Quality of pre-school children's pretend play and subsequent development of semantic organization and narrative re-telling skills. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 17(2), 148–158.
• Australian Government Department of Health. (2021). Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years (Birth to 5 years): An integration of physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep. www.health.gov.au
• Ludo Studio & BBC Studios. (n.d.). Bluey: Episodes. www.bluey.tv (episode titles only).