Meet Brighton's Sebastian Leavitt. /Joanne Harrington photos
Over the course of the last few months, Brighton’s Sebastian Leavitt has been learning the names and shapes of all the countries in the world and can identify them on a map, along with 100 or so flags associated with the various countries. Of course, his love for geography also includes the provinces of Canada and all of the United States, says mom Joanne Harrington.
He just loves it – he really gets into it, explains mom. The clip below highlights his excitement when naming off the countries.
Sebastian is just two years old – he’ll mark his third birthday in July.
And this is just the story of his story.
Harrington says a certified play therapist/psychotherapist, who specializes in child play therapy and neurodevelopment says it’s possible Sebastian may have the brainpower of an eight-year-old – and soon, he’ll be off to Toronto to undergo some brain-mapping and other testing.
His start in life could be interpreted as not particularly smooth sailing.
“He was my pandemic baby,” shares Joanne.
Sebastian is her fourth child.
Joanne and dad, Matthew Leavitt, were debating whether to try for a baby before they couldn’t anymore, recalls Joanne. It felt like this could be the last chance – there some was back and forth – and then “before I knew it, I was pregnant.”
At 43 years old at the time, Joanne says they of course had questions about whether everything would be OK. Then, just before Sebastian was due, Joanne was bitten by a tick and contracted Lyme Disease – although, she says she didn’t know it was a tick bite until 10 days after the fact.
She ended up quite sick, and about six weeks before Sebastian was due, ended up at the doctor’s office and then rushed to hospital. Sebastian came early – with a little jaundice – but was “perfectly healthy,” shares mom.
They spent about a week in hospital afterwards, and Joanne remembers thinking they may have to adjust for his milestones.
“Nope! He nailed every single one of them early and the physical ones as well.”
Sebastian’s parents first started to wonder about his abilities when reading to him.
This is when mom says they realized “our son had a fantastic and amazing memory.”
They’d pull out a book again – and they have a solid collection – and you could tell he remembered the story, he knew what was coming, and it could’ve been months since the story was read, explains Joanne.
The first subject area he was “obsessive” about was fruits and vegetables.
By one year old, mom says he had baskets of toy fruits and vegetables and could name and identify more than 100 of them. Next, he became fascinated with the planets.
Sebastian is still described like any other two-year-old – he’s learning to work out his emotions, wants to colour on walls at times. He plays, visits the library, has playgroups, and watches cartoons – and a lot of “Kid’s Learning Tube,” shares mom. This is also where mom says some of the seeds along the way may have been planted – when they’re singing about the provinces, or talking about countries, as examples.
Joanne, who’s a photographer, and Matthew, a house painter, are both more artistic individuals – mom doesn’t really know what inspires Sebastian to latch onto a certain subject – or areas such as science, geography, and math. But once he does, he wants to absorb everything about it, and they’re just trying to catch up.
Building on his love for planets and earth, they then got him a map to go over Canada.
It’s like he watches or hears something once or twice, and it’s embedded in his memory – he never forgets it, says mom, adding this also applies to a grocery list.
It was only last Christmas he got a world map – he started memorizing countries in quick order.
“(It got to the point) where I would go: Where’s this? And he’d point it out, dead on where it is.”
Around the map are flags, so then it was matching those to the countries and committing them to memory, explains Joanne. Eventually, they got their hands on some educational flashcards.
“He just rhymes them (the countries) off (from the flashcards.)” (Although, mom admits they had to watch some videos on pronunciations first.)
Joanne has been recording their journey, keeping a record for him and as recommended by his therapist, she notes.
“Now, we’re into numbers and counting. He can count by twos, threes, fives and 10s.”
Here’s Sebastian showing his counting skills.
Mom says she’s been learning along the way with Sebastian, just trying to feed his brain, indulge him, and give him the freedom to explore what he wants.
People in town have been sharing globes, maps and flags with him, too. That’s been special because some of these items like globes aren’t easy to get nowadays, or they’re from people’s trips, explains Joanne.
Then, there’s the periodic table – yes, he’s interested in that, too. Long story short, mom says he got stuck to this after hearing potassium was in bananas. Again, they got a copy of the table, watched some videos, and he’s obsessing over that now, says Joanne.
When asked about his favourite elements, he’ll quickly respond: “Potassium and arsenic,” to which mom and son then erupt in laughter about.
For a bit of fun – and due to a proud grandpa’s idea – Joanne says they’ve applied to the Guinness World Records for the youngest person to identify all the countries in the world and the most flags and are waiting to hear back. (They don’t believe there is a current record – this would be new.)
Sebastian’s activities centre around memorization and being interactive. Mom describes him as “100 miles a minute.”
Joanne says she reached out to Brightontoday.ca with Sebastian’s story hoping people in the community may know about potential resources and/or educational pathways for him. He’ll be heading off to school next year, and Joanne says she doesn’t know what to expect. They’ve thought of pointing him towards music or languages, but says she’d welcome conversations with people who’ve had similar experiences or who have ideas.
“He just blows us out of the water every day,” says Joanne, but she also wonders what’s next, what’s his path, and where to direct him.
Like most parents, they just want Sebastian to reach his full potential and continue to have fun during his childhood while calling a good rural community home, shares Joanne.
“We are hoping someone will recognize his talent, and maybe give us some guidance so this boy does not lose his love for learning.”
You can find Joanne on social media or contact her via email at threebeesstudio@gmail.com.
People can also follow along their journey via YouTube @learnwithsebastian.
(Written by: Sarah Hyatt)
