Jul 19, 2006 8:46 pm US/Pacific
14-Year-Old Sacramento Boy Sees With Sound
SACRAMENTO (CBS) ―
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On a trip to Sea World a few weeks ago Ben found that he and the dolphins shared an amazing talent.
CBS
In a pillow fight, 14 year old Ben Underwood can deliver a dead on shot. In foosball he's a determined competitor. When a video game is going his fingers fly. On his skates, he's fearless. For most teenagers it's nothing remarkable.
"Car, car!" Ben: "I hear the car"
But Ben Underwood is blind, totally blind. Hear the clicks? That's how he finds his way around.
To walk down the street with Ben is to be amazed at what he can see with his ears.
"Well, there's a fire hydrant on this side and a car on this side. Wait, is that, no, that's a trash can or a, hold on, let me see. That's a trash can, yeah, rash can."
Ben was just two-years-old when cancer claimed his eyes, both were surgically removed. A day of heartbreak for his mother Aquanetta.
"And he woke up from that surgery and Ben said, 'mom, I can't see any more, I can't see any more'. And I said you can't use your eyes but you've got your nose, and your ears and your mouth."
From that day on Ben has used his hearing, his touch, his sense of smell to conquer a world of darkness. It's sometimes hard to believe how good Ben is. Just watch the way he deftly steps around a fallen trash can.
Somehow Ben has mastered echolocation. It's the same way dolphins get around bouncing sound waves to figure out where they are.
On a trip to Sea World a few weeks ago Ben found that he and the dolphins shared an amazing talent.
Out of the water, it becomes easy to forget that Ben is blind.
How else to justify my pleasure when I put a couple of goals past him in foosball.
"Oh, you thought you were so good."
"I am good!" Shouts Ben.
He is indeed.
Playing video games with his brother Isaiah, in the assault of noise, Ben can figure out everything that's happening just by listening.
"How can you even separate the sound?
"Cause they got different voices," says Ben.
"Nobody is going to tell him that there is an impossibility for him, cause there are none."
"This mom ought to be teaching a course on how to raise a kid who can't see well," comments Dr. James Ruben.
Ophthalmologist Dr. James Ruben says Aquanetta has done exactly the right thing with Ben, never being overprotective, never putting limits on him.
"You know I think the real story here is not, is not his talents, but his attitude, and attitude is what it's really about."
"We have to give our kids confidence. We give them pride, empower him with who he is, and be proud of who you are, no matter what!"
you can see where Ben gets his extraordinary self confidence.
"There's nothing I can't do, there's that you can't do I can't do better. And that's the attitude, you know what I'm saying? That's what I want to give him," says Ben's mother proudly.
Watching him in action, it seems clear that Ben really can do anything.
For the Early Show, John Blackstone, CBS news, Sacramento.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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