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Mom finds hope as nonverbal son sings Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’

The mother of a boy with nonverbal autism says she witnessed a miracle recently when her son spontaneously put words together for the first time by singing part of Katy Perry’s “Roar.”

A video posted on YouTube shows Jack Robbins, an 8-year-old Texas boy, repeatedly singing the song’s chorus.

“That’s great, Jack,” his mother, Carla Robbins, can be heard saying in the video. “That’s a good song. You sing it very well.”

“He never says a word he is not told to say and he spontaneously sang this song, over and over because, well, obviously he likes it!” Robbins wrote on YouTube. “Which is a miracle and so cool that he had a preference for music, an artist, a song AND he’s singing it!”

Robbins told WFAA that Jack can normally only say single words, and then only to get things he wants. She said she was elated to hear him singing.

“I was so happy to know something that he liked,” she said. “I don’t know what his favorite food is, I don’t know what his favorite color is. I know he likes music, but I didn’t know he liked a particular song … It just gives me so much hope.”

Contact Stephanie Grimes at sgrimes@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @steph_grimes

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