FIDOU Veragoo rushes outside her house to greet her daughter, Davina, who is returning home from nursery.

"Helloooo," she calls in a high, shrill voice. "Daveeenaaa, Daveeenaaaa".

The welcome is conducted with such excitement and intensity that you might think the mother has not seen her child for many years.

Yet it was only this morning that Fidou, 35, of Oakdale Road, Leytonstone, packed Davina, four, off to nursery.

What is exceptional is that Davina has autism. She is withdrawn, reclusive, shuns eye contact, talks very little and has never called Fidou "mum".

The flamboyant greeting is intended to stimulate her daughter's fragile attachment to the outside world.

Autism is a disorder for which there is no known cure or definite cause.

It is typically diagnosed when a child is aged two. Signs include lack of language, social and play skills.

Children with autism have difficulty in socialising, they reject change, may laugh inappropriately, are frequently insensitive to pain and have difficulty in responding to verbal cues.

A common characterisation is that they are trapped in their own world.

Recent discussion has centred on the triple MMR vaccine. Leading scientist Dr. Andrew Wakefield believes that it may cause autism.

Davina received her MMR jab when she was 13 months and showed the first signs of autism three months later.

Fidou is not sure whether the jab precipitated her daughter's current condition and it is not her priority. She is concerned only about how Davina develops.

"It's all about accepting her. I'm going to love, accept and help her - that's the only thing that I can do," she said.

Fidou moved to England with her husband, Veven Veragoo, 44, from Mauritius in 1990.

The same year, Fidou gave birth to a boy, Warren, now 11, a perfectly healthy baby who is now prospering at school.

Several years later, Fidou became pregnant with Davina: "I just wanted to have a healthy baby by a planned Caesarean because I had a Caesarean with Warren as well. I had a cold beforehand and I told the doctor, but he didn't listen.

"Things went wrong and they didn't give me enough morphine. They had to give me extra and while they were stitching me up I was bleeding quite heavily, so that took a long time."

Parental illness during pregnancy and traumatic births have both been cited as a possible causes of autism.

Soon after her birth, Davina developed a number of minor health problems.

"I wasn't that worried. But when she still wasn't babbling at seven months I started to become concerned," recalled Fidou.

She took her daughter to speech therapy lessons. By 11 months, Davina was both walking and had even said her first words.

Fidou said: "Around 15 or 16 months I began to notice the changes. She stopped playing. She was confused. When people came into the house, she wouldn't get excited like normal babies. And she stopped talking."

One of the speech therapy teachers recommended a specialist. They had noticed her classic autistic behaviour, like walking on her toes.

"The specialist told us she had 'features of autism', that's all she said. On that day, I thought you don't see her any more as Davina, you see her as Davina the autistic child," said Fidou.

She is critical of the lack of support she received from any quarter at the time.

She and her husband eventually found a support group for parents of autistic children in Walthamstow.

Taking part in meetings twice a week allowed the couple to share their experiences and receive advice.

It was also there that Fidou learnt of the revolutionary Son-Rise programme in America.

Son-Rise was started by the parents of a boy diagnosed as being autistic when he was 18 months.

Bears and Samahria Kaufman were told that their son Raun's condition was incurable and he should be put in an institution.

They refused to accept this and, instead of attempting to make him "normal", Samahria intuitively decided to join Raun in his world.

She sat down beside him and rocked methodically as he rocked, and tapped obsessively as he tapped. She even copied his habit of spinning plates.

One day Raun, who had always previously shunned eye contact, looked at his mother for the first time.

It was a momentous breakthrough and one that confirmed Samahria's belief in her newfound technique.

Pprogress was so rapid that by the time Raun was five, he was no longer exhibiting signs of autism.

He went on to get straight As at college and attended an Ivy League American university.

Samahria started a course based on her methods and to date 22,000 parents have signed up.

Fidou now hopes that the technique could help her daughter.

"I only know two people who have been on it. One in Enfield and one in Birmingham. But the child in Birmingham is now meant to be 90 per cent free of autism.

"Son-Rise is about love and acceptance. There are other options available, such as Lovaas, where you sit your child down and force her to do things. But that's not what we want for Davina," she said.

Back in Oakdale Road, the welcome over, Davina marches with determination to a pile of books on a shelf. Picking one up, she appears to read it.

But then she suddenly turns the page and begins to tap rapidly. The tapping continues while her mother explains why she wants to go on the Son-Rise course despite fees totalling £7,000.

"Right now she doesn't call me Mummy. It doesn't bother me. I know that she still loves me. But I'd like her to be with me because at the moment she's not. We're trying to bring her into our world.

"I'm not hoping she will be cured - there's no guarantee. But I would like her to come out of the autism."

Fidou Veragoo and her husband are appealing to the public to help them raise the £7,000. They have already saved £2,000 out of her husband's wages as a nurse.

They are also appealing for helpers to aid with their daughter's upbringing.

To donate money, send cheques made out to the Davina Trust Fund (account number 79488868), c/o Lloyds TSB, 797-799 Leyonstone High Road, E11.

For further information on autism, call the Autism Helpline on 0870 600 85 85.