Son of Prince Harry

Autism?- Part 2

Reread the last chapter, I added some things at the end after the initial publishing.

Harry, Meghan, and Alex are back from Scotland. While they were still on holiday Harry and Meghan decided it would be best to go to a physician to examine Alex when they got home. They wanted to gain some insight into whether there was something wrong with him or not.

"Meg get Alex ready we have to get to the physician soon." Harry hollered.

"We're ready, we can go now."

"Okay." The small family got into the back of their car and made their way to the physician's office.

They arrived at the physician's office and it was empty except for the receptionist and the nurse. The doctor agreed to close her office early, Harry and Meghan didn't want the news of their appointment all over the news.

"Hello." Harry and Meghan said greeting the workers. They all said hello back. The nurse spoke first.

"Okay, so we're going to have little Alex wait out here while you two go in with the doctor and speak to her before she examines him." The nurse, Nurse Jackie said. The receptionist, Ms. Graham stood to escort the anxious parents down the hall to the Dr. Benson's office.

Meghan kneeled and said, "Alex you're going to stay out here with the nice nurse while Daddy and I go to the back and speak with the doctor." He just ignored her and went to sit while on his tablet.

"So if you two will just follow me I'll take you to the doctor's office." The receptionist said.

"Great." "Perfect." The parents responded.

When they arrived at Dr. Benson's office Ms. Graham knocked on the door, a few seconds later they heard the doctor shout for them to enter. As they walked in the doctor stood up to greet them with an outstretched hand.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you both or as nice as it can be given the circumstance."

"Likewise." Harry said as Meghan nodded in agreement with a nervous smile.

"Okay you two can have a seat on the sofa." Meghan and Harry take a seat. "Tell me why you lot are here today."

Meghan starts as the doctor has her clipboard ready to take notes. "Harry's brother noticed that something isn't right with Alex. We didn't want to believe him at first, but as we began watching Alex for specific things we began to notice it too. Alex isn't very social and he doesn't make eye contact. He doesn't speak to anyone and if he does it's usually one word or very short. The only time he "talks" is when he's singing along to a song."

Harry jumps in, "We know he's only two, but he also doesn't like to be touched much and during our holiday in Scotland he had a meltdown." Harry proceeds to tell Dr. Benson about his son's meltdown.

"He was playing music while the family was eating dessert and I took the music player from him. He began to scream and cry. We had to leave him on his own to calm down."

"We just wanted to take him to see someone because we're worried and we just want to make sure we're not stressing over nothing." Meghan finishes.

Dr. Benson begins, "With everything that you've told me it could be a few things. I'm going to speak to Alex and watch his behavior. Don't get too worked up, remember this could be due to his age, slower development, or something else. If it is something else we will make sure you have the best options available to you going forward." All of the adults stood as she opened the door.

"You two wait out here while Nurse Jackie and I take Alex back to my office and chat with him. It's sometimes easier on the child if their parents aren't in the room."

"Alright." Meghan and Harry say walking down the hall. As they walk into the main area they see the receptionist working and nurse Jackie sitting with Alex as he listens to music on his tablet. Harry and Meghan approach Alex.

"Alex, Mommy and I are going to wait out here while you go to the nice doctors office for a chat. Okay?" Alex nods his head. "Okay but Alex you can't take your music with you." Alex nods again and to Meghan and Harry's surprise he hands his dad his tablet and headphones without issue. Alex stands and waits to be led to Dr. Benson's office.

Alex entered Dr. Benson's office with nurse Jackie behind him.

"Hello, Alex came and sit down here." Dr. Benson said to Alex while pointing at the little chair opposite doctor Benson's desk. Alex sat down on the chair opposite Dr. Benson, but didn't look at her.

Before the evaluation could even begin Alex decided to get up and wonder the room which was full of toys and other things to interest children. Dr. Benson decided to just observe Alex and not interrupt.

Alex couldn't help but flap his arms as he moved about the room. Dr. Benson made a note of Alex's actions.

"Alex why don't we play with some Legos?" Dr. Benson suggested, but he just continued wondering around the room.

Dr. Benson made a Lego tower with the Legos. Alex saw what she was doing, he walked over to the Lego box and knocked it off the table. Alex smiled like he was getting pleasure from being disruptive. After an hour of observing Alex's beheavouir Dr. Benson felt like she had seen enough. She called Harry and Megan who were ever nervous back to her office. The couple came in and sat in the chairs they were previously sitting on.

Megan and Harry were worried by Dr. Benson's glum facial expression and that escipally made Megan more nervous then she already was. Dr. Benson took a breath then began.

"Alex is a wonderful boy and you two should be really proud of that," Dr. Benson paused for a moment, "but there is a problem and you were right to bring him to me."

"What kind of problems?" Megan asked Dr. Benson with her heart sinking, Harry's face held an expression of deep worry.

" Your son has problems with communication, audio processing, and social communication. Have you ever heard of autism?" Dr Benson said letting a heavy breath out.

Megan began to cry and Harry squeezed her hand tighter.

"What is autism?" Harry asked looking at the doctor with a confused expression. Harry's heart has sank into his stomach, he couldn't wrap his head around the fact that his beautiful baby boy had something wrong with him.

"It's a developmental condition that is usually present from early childhood. It is characterized by great difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people. Also in using language and abstract concepts, I believe your son is on the autism spectrum." Dr. Benson said looking at the very distressed parents. Dr. Benson always hates breaking the news to parents because it's heart wrenching to see them like that.

"So he's on the autism spectrum? What is the spectrum?" Megan asked with confusion in her voice.

"The autism spectrum is a scale. Because autism presents itself differently in each case the spectrum is there to understand how it specifically affects each child and proceed from there. I will refer you  to a highly regarded speech and lauange therapist." Dr. Benson tried to reassure Harry and Megan.