I don't think she seems significantly more alert or engaged in these photos than she does now. She's looking away from the camera, eating mulch, sitting slumped on a surfboard and in a wagon, not smiling or looking remotely interested in the photo where she's being hugged by Priscilla...I forget who mentioned this in the previous thread, but I agree that Abbie appears much "better" in older photos and footage because her developmental age was closer to her chronological age. It's "normal" for a young child to look away from the camera, because young children can be easily distracted. It's "normal" for a seven year old to sit slumped on a surfboard instead of standing up, because their gross motor skills haven't finished developing. I think Abbie seems a lot "worse" now because the contrast between her extremely childlike behavior and nearly-adult body registers as more "off" than the contrast of a small child who is only a few years behind on their milestones.
She's definitely regressed in terms of skills, and she does seem less happy overall now than when she was younger...but I don't think she was ever very alert or responsive to the people around her.
This is a very intriguing observation and reading your explanation, I agree with you. Many of her facial expressions are the same or similar. I agree that it was much more acceptable for her to behave in these ways because of her physical age. But now, the physical body has grown and the rest of her really hasn't. Maybe a tiny bit, but not enough to match were a NT 16 year old girl would be.
One major difference that I see between then and now are some of her physical capabilities, in old videos, we've seen her raise her arms all the way up to reach something. Now, she just barely raises her arms halfway. Usually because she's worried about someone tickling her and also likely she has lost some muscle tone as she's gotten older. She also used to run around and jump more easily. She almost never jumps now, at least, not in place (she's fairly quick to jump up off the couch from a sitting position) and when she does run, it looks... I don't know what the word is, lopsided? Uneven?
Here's an old video of when they went to Disney when Abbie was smaller. She was 'better' in a lot of ways, but in others, she was just the same.
EDIT -- Sorry,
@bready! I just saw that you posted the same video!! Whoops! My mistake. lol