LITTLE Sarah Roberts sits at the piano and plays Somewhere Over the Rainbow, In Dublin's' Fair City and a selection of Mozart.

Deep in concentration, her hands move over the keys, her fingers so tiny she struggles to reach the black notes.

In fact Sarah has trouble just reaching the keyboard - because she is just three years old.

Sarah is autistic and her parents Alison and Dave have made an agonising decision.

They are putting Sarah on the Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) programme.

The treatment, which is highly controversial, may virtully eliminate Sarah's autism.

But it could also rob her of her gift for music.

Alison explained: "We can't get a prognosis of what will happen to Sarah.

"We want her to be able to live and exist as a normal person.

"ABA can eliminate autism. It trains people to behave normally.

"We realise that by putting Sarah through this programme we are going against nature, but we just want her to be happy."

Sarah, who will be four later this month, was born 17 weeks prematurely.

She weighed just lb 9ozs (716 grams) and doctors put her chances of survival at practically zero.

Alison said: "She was the length of Dave's hand and her skin was translucent.

"She was put on to a ventilator and at times it was difficult to tell where Sarah began and the equipment ended.

"When she was three-and-a-half weeks old, we were told we might lose her. It was awful."

Sarah was born in Whipps Cross Hospital, and Dave and Alison had to wait for four weeks before they could hold their baby.

She was later transferred from the special care baby unit to Homerton Hospital.

"She was hooked up to all sorts of contraptions and more machines than we had ever seen before," said Alison. "But Sarah came through, she is a miracle."

Sarah was allowed home at four months old, but scarring of the lungs during those precious weeks on the ventilator meant she was to spend the next two years on oxygen.

As she became a toddler, Alison and Dave of Oakhill Crescent, Woodford Green, noticed she was in a world of her own.

Alsion said: "She had no idea how to play, she didn't socialise and paid little attention to her brother and sister, but she enjoyed a rough and tumble and playing on swings and slides."

Sarah was diagnosed with autistism in January 2002 after visits to a speech and language therapist and a long consultation with health professionals.

Alsion said: "I had read about autism and thought I knew what it was, but when it happened to Sarah I realised I didn't understand it at all.

"I kept reading the words Triad Impairment - these refer to communication, interaction and imagination.

"She is at the high functioning end of the range."

Alison said Sarah often used her own language and had a 'secret' way of talking with her sister Ellie, five, and one-year-old brother Tom, one.

Alison said: "Autistic children have no sense of themselves and what they are. Sarah doesn't have any imigination, we had to teach her how to play."

Alison explained how they spent weeks teaching Sarah to dress herself .

"We put her clothes in a pile, one of us sits behind her and the other in front." she said.

"By moving her arm for her and saying 'pick up the vest' at the same time she learnt to pick up all the clothes."

Alison has now given up her teaching job to be with Sarah.

She said: "She can play 400 tunes on the piano just by listening to them, she can recite the alphabet backwards and forwards and she can count to 22 in French."

Despite Sarah's remarkable gifts her family are concerned about the future.

After much soul searching, the couple decided to opt for ABA.

Developed by Dr Ivor Lovaas in America, it would involve a team of therapists working with Sarah six hours a day for two years until she is ready to go to school.

Working on a one-to-one basis, the therapists sit in a chair facing the child and ask them to carry out commands such as pointing to a book, clapping hands, standing up and more.

Commands known as receptive and expressive, include prompting the child to label objects, for example a toy or a shoe, name the object or hand it to the therapist.

The programme is intensive and all distractions such as patterned wallpaper, curtains and toys have to be cleared from the room in the family home which must be set aside as a training area.

The treatment is expensive and will cost the Roberts an estimated £20,000 per year.

"We have asked Waltham Forest Council to assess Sarah three times, but it has refused each time saying her needs are being met," said Alison.

A spokesman for the National Autism Society (NAS) said: "People with autism look like anyone else, but it affects the way they communicate and relate to people around them.

"Reality to an autistic person is a confusing, interacting mass of events, people, places, sounds and sights. There seem to be no clear boundaries, order or meaning to anything.

"The exact cause is not known but research shows it is associated with a variety of conditions affecting the brain development which occur before, during or very soon after birth."

"The NAS is currently evaluating the Lovaas approach using funding from the Department of Health."

Alison and Dave are desperate to raise funding for the ABA programme, and have set aside their savings.

They are looking for sponsorship from local businesses and ideas to help with their fundraising efforts.

Anyone who is willing to help can contact them on 8923 7683.