Jack Robbins, who is diagnosed with a form of autism spectrum disorder known as nonverbal autism, is unable to piece together simple sentences for his family to understand. Earlier this month, Jack started to mumble a phrase that sounded somewhat familiar to his mother Carla, but one she couldn’t fully make out. After realizing it was the popular song “Roar” by Katy Perry, Carla found herself unable to speak.

“We thought it was nonsense, meaningless jabber. Until one day we really listened and figured out he was singing Katy Perry's "Roar" song!” Carla Robbins said on her YouTube account. “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! Which is a miracle and so cool that he had a preference for music, an artist, a song, and he's singing it!”

Carla told Texas’ WFAA that Jack has never been able to say anything spontaneously and can only shout out single words to get his point across. She said he has always showed an interest in music, but has never gone as far as to sing his favorite ballad. Now she hopes her son will get the opportunity to meet his favorite musician.

“Katy Perry you should meet our beautiful son Jack who obviously loves you! :-),” she wrote on YouTube.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 88 children is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Around 25 percent of children identified with autism spectrum disorder also suffer from nonverbal autism. Research has shown that the severity of nonverbal autism can be defined by how many words a child can speak by a certain age.

A recent study, involving 535 children who were enrolled in the autism registry, Simmons Simplex Collection, tracked the number of children who were unable complete two-word phrases at 4 years old. By the age of 8 around 70 percent of the children were able to speak in two-word phrases and half could speak fluently.

“We found that more children did go on to gain phrase speech than previously thought,” said Ericka Wodka, a neuropsychologist at the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore. “I think what our research points to is that social goals really must be considered in intervention as well.”