Isabel Rose grew from a curious and active infant to a still more curious and active young child. She began to develop strong preferences for her favorite movies and cartoons, and even before she started speaking coherently had little difficulty indicating this preference.
Since Isabel Rose was a particularly fussy child with her food, Caitlin had some trouble getting her to eat enough, or the right kinds of food. Isabel could only eat fruit for breakfast, and would never eat her vegetables after her meat ā only if they were given to her first. Furthermore, she was very particular about both her morning routine and her bedtime one. The ājust rightā phenomenon, with Isabel Rose, did not stop as she aged through her childhood, either; she continued to cling tightly to her routine, and would become upset if it was interrupted. However with work Caitlin was able to find ways to help work around some of these needs. (Biosocial)
Early in her childhood, Isabel Rose began to develop good hand skills ā she liked drawing and coloring, and had fun doing so with her mother from an early age. She could also start to feed herself soon ā despite the delay in some of her gross motor skills, she was clearly developing fine motor skills at a rapid rate. Her larger movements, however, continued to be clumsy; she fell down while walking and running, and had difficulties climbing or using stairs ā something that turned out to be a blessing for her mother, who could only keep things out of Isabel's curious hands by making sure they were somewhere high up. (Biosocial)
In addition to limitations remaining from the delays in her earlier development, Isabel Rose showed the classic difficulties of preoperational thinking (Piaget's Cognitive theory). She struggled a lot with ideas of conservation, not helped by the difficulties she still experienced with object permanence. She also failed to show development of theory of mind when expected in most children, though her mother was not surprised by this, being somewhat familiar delays common in developmental disabilities. Caitlin did have concerns about sending Isabel Rose to preschool for this reason, and decided to wait until she was old enough for kindergarten to start her schooling. (Cognitive)
Isabel's language development continued to be slow when spoken verbally. Caitlin, noticing that Isabel Rose was good at imitating gestures and replicating them in a goal-oriented way, began to take a class on American Sign Language, and taught what she learned to Isabel at home. While by the age of three Isabel was beginning to use simple sentences on occasion, she showed a distinct preference for sign language, and could communicate more effectively that way. As she and her mother learned sign language together, their vocabularies expanded at similar rates, and in fact as her signed vocabulary grew Isabel's ability to verbalize also grew, though her speech was somewhat slow and clumsy; by four she was beginning to use longer sentences, and could articulate verbally some things she did not know how to say in sign, though she also relied heavily on gesture. (Cognitive)
Language was the biggest barrier between Isable Rose and socialization. She became less shy as she grew into childhood, and liked meeting new people with her mother present to guide her, but had difficulty expressing her thoughts and feelings. When Caitlin began taking her to the park or the playground to play, she tried to engage with other children, but often found others in her age group wanted her to do things she couldn't or didn't want to do. For the first time she began to suffer blows to her confidence, despite her mother's reassurances, and a child who might have become very outgoing began to withdraw from her peers. (Psychosocial)
Around the age of four, Isabel Rose began to indicate something else unexpected ā different preferences for gender roles. She preferred āboy'sā costumes and clothes, and identified more with the male characters and heroes in the movies she watched. Caitlin allowed this, with some hesitation, knowing Isabel Rose would be going to school soon and might be further ostracized by her peers. As a result she tried to come up with compromises that Isabel could agree to ā for example, she could wear boy's clothes, and boy's shoes, but shouldn't cut her hair short. During this process, Isabel began to get closer with Mark, her uncle, who was happy to take part in more boyish activities.
By that age, Isabel ā who began to prefer Izzy ā had decided that the gender schema they'd developed for girl did not fit them. However, their understanding of gender concepts was still very limited, and they only had two, opposing schema for gender, leaving them to decide that boy was a better fit. (Cognitive theory) (Psychosocial)
Izzy entered school and made only a few friends, finding it difficult to engage with their peers and preferring the company of their family and of animals. Though they were speaking by the time they entered kindergarten, it soon became clear that their disability would require accommodation if they were going to be successful in school. Caitlin brought Izzy to a psychologist, and they were diagnosed with autism. However, Caitlin, who had done well in school with a combination between academic support and accommodation and an integrated environment, was adamant that her child should not be pulled out of the classroom and placed in a segregated special education class unless Izzy expressed that desire. (Biological)
This wasn't the only issue Izzy had in middle childhood. They were growing up in a family with two unmarried women as their primary caretakers, aided by their uncle, and experienced disconnect between their reality and what was presented to them as a normal family. Beyond that, they continued to experience confusion about their place in the construction of gender, often aligning themself with the boys in their group only to be told that they didn't belong there. At nine, they cut their own hair, hoping that this would allow them to fit into the schema other people had of boy, but continued to face the same problems. (Social)
Being autistic had noticeable effects on Izzy's brain development as well, which sometimes caused rifts between them and their peers. They had been confident and comfortable in their autonomy as a young child; but Erikson's psychosocial stages would see them struggling in the realm of industry vs. inferiority. Compared to their peers, Izzy didn't feel competent anymore ā their ability to understand information or make sense of situations was poor; their reaction time to stimuli of any sort was delayed; the automization of thought processes that many of their peers experienced didn't seem to happen for them. (Psychosocial)
On the other hand, Izzy began to see improvement in some parts of their cognition, and was fortunate enough to have a family who were proud of these accomplishments. Despite still struggling with some of the limitations of preoperational thinking, they began to see the advances seen in the operational stage of thinking, developing skills with classification and inference. These skills helped them make connections in things that would later help them learn and communicate ā for example, that they could write more easily than they could talk, and that writing or typing was a better form of communication for them to use. (Cognitive)
In this period of middle childhood, Izzy's main support came from their family, rather than from their peers. Disconnected from their mother's parents, they were close to Caitlin and Mark, and looked to Anne's family as their extended family ā Anne and Caitlin had been dating since they were four, and while unusual this family structure had provided good support to Izzy. With their family, they were able and encouraged to be active and adventurous, to indulge their natural curiosity, and to make themself feel comfortable. Their creativity gave them an outlet, and though sometimes troublesome in school and with their peers, Izzy's interests, whatever they were, were valued by Caitlin, Anne, and Mark. (Social)
