A mum is raising money to take her autistic son to America for pioneering treatment to help him communicate.

Three-year-old Edison Osmani is awaiting an official diagnosis of autism, a developmental disability that makes it difficult to interact and form relationships, but mum Gemma Bird said doctors are 99% sure he has the condition.

Miss Bird, who would love Edison to go to a mainstream school next year, discovered the Son-Rise programme, an alternative course of child-led therapy run by the Autism Treatment Centre of America.

After completing a three-day taster session in London she wants to take Edison to Massachusetts for an intensive five-day course, where teams would work with her and her son.

It will cost about £15,000.

The 25-year-old, of Monks Court, Maidstone, who also has a six-month-old son Sam, said: “The idea is you join their world and then get them to join yours. So if he’s playing with a toy bus, spinning the wheels, you pick up a bus and spin the wheels with him.

"Surprisingly he really likes you copying him and gives you eye contact and then you can interact and try to teach him words.

“Non-verbal autistic adults have been to America and started speaking.

“Eddie is already changing. His attention and eye contact are getting better after just two-and-a-half weeks. I can say sit down and he will. He’s got so much love to give. He wants to speak but gets so frustrated and upset.”

Despite his progress, Edison is still in nappies and occasionally gets frustrated and bites other children so more work is needed before September.

At two-years-old, Edison was struggling to communicate and could only say a few simple words such as mama and cat.

Within months he had stopped saying those words and would always play with the same toys, only eat certain foods and seemed to be living “in his own little world”.

Miss Bird spends six to eight hours a day working through the Son-Rise programme with Edison and is looking for volunteers, perhaps childcare students, to work with her in exchange for travel expenses and valuable experience.

Click to donate or volunteer.