From Dyslexic Student to Education Disruptor

So imagine you have a child who has something going on and you do not know what it is

and you do not have the answers. Well, we come into the picture, either through the school districts or private evaluations and we give them the answers and not only do we give them the answers but we give them path forward. We give them that roadmap that they need to be able to support their child.

Dr. Christy Bach is a compassionate educational psychologist and the founder of Cornerstone Educational Solutions, drawing from her journey of overcoming undiagnosed dyslexia. She empowers students, families and educators with the tools, advocacy and support needed to help every learner thrive with confidence. The education tends to be same old, same old.

There's not a lot of change. There's not a lot of innovation, right? No, there's not. I think a lot of it is schools not necessarily giving the students what they need because the schools don't have the knowledge of what they need.

“And that's why I say, we disrupt, I mean, what we do with the way we do evaluations,”

we're disruptors. We are changing the way evaluations are being done. And you're legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. Welcome back to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast. My name is Jason Tyler and today I'm joined by Dr. Christy Bach.

Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. How are you doing today? Doing great.

Thank you. So you just wrapped up filming your episode with Kofi, how are you feeling now on the other side of it? Good. Relieved.

It's over. It was great. It was fun. It was fun to be able to kind of articulate all these pieces of my life, my story, the business, kind of all putting it in one.

“So what are some things that we're going to learn about you in your legacy makers episode?”

What can the viewers look forward to? Well, they can look forward to the fact that this is truly missional for me. It's a part of who I am, not really just, it started as a business to make money, but it's turned into kind of who I am, starting as a, as a learning disabled student with dyslexia and turning into, that's the population we serve.

We serve the students with disabilities. So it's been a very cool evolution. Gotcha. And so I heard in just in the name of your company, you're in the education space. We are.

So talk to me a little bit about, you know, some of the ups and downs in that space. What are some of the things that you're dealing with on a daily basis? Man, you know, in the education space right now, it's crazy how much anxiety, I've been going to cycle for 28 years.

And so I have watched it go from, you know, where autism was never even discussed.

And now we're diagnosing autism constantly. And I would say since COVID, we have seen such an elevation in the anxiety that students experience. It's insane. And it's real.

And there's just not a lot of support for them, because it's kind of new to a lot of the pieces of education where we haven't really had to deal with that much in the past. So, you know, kind of re-equiping ourselves to be able to deal with this rise of anxiety, depression, social emotional concerns in general, has been a bit of a challenge, but it's rewarding because underneath all of that anxiety are kids who really, you know, they're

amazing kids. And we just need to kind of get past a lot of this. So, there's a, there's a strange dichotomy of, you know, in the past, you wouldn't see as many diagnoses of autism of, you know, these social disorders or mental disorders. Or what, what, what have you?

Now we see a lot more of them.

And the first thing that people jump to is, oh, there's a rise in, you know, autism.

There's a rise in all of these things. Everything must be wrong, but is it just a rise because we're now, we now we know what to look for?

“And so, we're actually properly diagnosing what before may have been overlooked?”

Yeah. That's actually a really great question. And it's something that I think a lot of people have had to kind of struggle with. And so, being in this space for the last 28 years, you absolutely are seeing a rise in

Everything is going up.

“And, you know, I think back to, when I was a kid, we have kids who were labeled as much.”

And I think it's more, there's a bit of this that is, we're now, we now know what to look for, and we now are giving it a name. So ADHD, you know, there was just the hyperkids, you know, and there was back, if you,

if you go back to the one room school houses back in the day, the teacher always had a pot

of coffee in the back of the room, and she, and because ADHD kids stimulants actually calm them down, it's the opposite of what it would be if you weren't. So if you drank a couple of coffee, you're kind of buzz, well, ADHD kid would be calm down. So that back in those days, they would give the kids coffee.

So back in art, my day when I was young, you know, it was just the hyperkids. It was just those kids that would like run around and need to run constantly. So I think part of it is, we are naming it more, but there has absolutely been a massive increase in autism. That is just one of those things that an anxiety since COVID, those things have significantly

increased, and those are due to environmental. There's a lot of different things that have kind of created that issue right now. I think you may have inadvertently just helped me self-diagnosed myself with ADHD, because

“I'm just now realizing I'm like, so that's why coffee doesn't affect me, right?”

Yes. Or do you ever drink an energy drink, and you're like, I don't get energy from it? The only, the only energy, you know what, I don't even know if I want to shout them out because I'm, they're not a sponsor of this podcast, but the only energy drink that I do notice gives me like a boost in energy as Celsius.

But that's because it's like a billion grams of caffeine.

You know, my sons were drinking that the other day, and we were in the kitchen and both of my sons are ADHD, and like coffee does not even begin to affect them. It actually calms them down, and they were commenting that about the Celsius. There's got to be something in that that kind of, there's a, there's a, I can't remember the name of the chemical, but there's a chemical in Celsius.

It might be a theanine, something that that causes you to know. It's the same thing that's found in pre-workout that I don't know if you're, I mean, if you know anybody that works out and they take pre-workout, certain pre-workouts will make you feel itchy, and that's a reaction to a theanine, something to do with your nerve endings.

Interesting. It's barking up. I don't know the science behind this, don't, don't nobody crucify me. I'm not a scientist, but I do know that that is found in Celsius as well.

“I think maybe that's the thing that gives you that sort of, whatever it was they both were”

say, and both of them like ADHD, big time, and they both were saying that that's something that works for them. So, I don't know, but yeah, it is the opposite of what you think. A lot of our ADHD kids, you know, you can address a lot of it, especially if it's not impacting them that much and like the classroom or anything, a lot of times you could just

address it by either caffeine or accommodations where they have breaks and those kinds of things. Got you. Got you. So, what are some things that you are doing in your business to expand and help these

kids, you know, you're an educator, you're also a doctor, so it talks to me a little bit about the, you know, your doctor program, my dad's a psychologist as well. So, he's the, IOC representative for Jamaica, so he does sports psychology super, super cool job. That's really neat.

But talks to me a little bit about the education piece and what you're doing in the community. Yeah, we're definitely, so cornerstone is educational psychologists. We also have speech paths and OTs, so we're evaluations. So we're really into the, the diagnostic side of it and it's, it's very different than

traditional psychology. Most people think you just sit here on it, you know, and that it's regular psychology, but it is very, very different. And what I love about what we do is, you know, so when it's your kid, it's hard to watch them struggle.

What do they say?

You're never, you're never happier than your saddest child.

And that's true. Yeah, it is absolutely true. Wow, that's amazing. It's true. It's true.

It's true. Because if one of my kids I know is struggling, it's always weighing on your mind. So imagine you have a child who has something going on and you do not know what it is and you do not have the answers. Well, we come into the picture, either through the school districts or private evaluations

and we give them the answers and not only do we give them the answers, but we give them path forward. We give them that roadmap that they need to be able to support their child. And so it's a huge deal to what we're serving the parents, but the community in general,

on leave and we're able to then step in and partner alongside of them to be able to support

these kids and to be able to get them the evaluations they need in order to know where to go. You touched on school districts there, I want to get your opinion on just kind of the state of schooling as it is right now. I know, you know, I have plenty of friends that are teachers and they're like, man, these

kids are uncontrollable these days, you know, the kids, they don't, the can't learn, they can't read, what's your, what's your kind of general progress is what's going on in schooling now it is. It's, you know, it was interesting when we were doing the, um, the show. I, the education tends to be, say, we'll, it, they, there's not a lot of change.

There's not a lot of innovation, right?

“Oh, there's not, and that's why I say we disrupt, I mean, what we do with the way we do”

evaluations, we're disruptors, we are changing the way evaluations are being done and kind of the format that most of the schools are used to. And that's important for us to be able to have places that come in and do disruption because education is firmly rooted in tradition and it's just the way it is, but it doesn't have to be that way, it's not better for kids, I mean, if you think about like the whole

language and the, um, it's just a debate within education for reading, it's phonics or whole language, well, there's a lot of us who were, um, raised on a certain type and struggle

with reading and it's just this pendulum goes back and forth and and it always stays within

that. Well, what if it's something different? Why are we trying other things? And so, you know, all of these behavior issues at man and the anxiety and the depression and all of

“these school avoidance issues that we're seeing now, it really, it's, I think a lot of”

it is schools not necessarily giving the students what they need because the schools don't have the knowledge of what they need. And so, you know, we create these big bureaucratic systems that are supposed to come in and like, you know, speak into everything that you're supposed to do, but it doesn't always work that way. And it's not really, it's not really a one-size-fits-all kind of situation, it's very tailored, like the ideal situation for me,

like I did, I did great in school. I was, you know, I was two GPA points under the valedictorian of my high school. I was, I was, I was, I was great at school. Okay. And then I got in college where I had a lot more freedom. Yes. And I was like, oh, I don't actually like doing any of this at all. I was doing it for survival back in school because it's just what I had to do. But now I'm in college and I have autonomy in freedom. Yeah, talks to

me a little bit about like the structure of schooling as it is, right? Why aren't we as a society thinking about ways to restructure? We have all of this new technology. I mean, in the year of our Lord 2025, there's, it's crazy. So many systems that we could build that

“could be a better thing. Why aren't we taking more of a nuanced approach to schooling?”

I think that there are some innovators. There's a in California where we're predominantly charter schools. So they're kind of like able to be a little bit more innovative, but education in general. And when you get these big districts that, you know, there isn't really any of it. I mean, they'll try and they'll be some funding for something at all comes back to money. And, but we're not teaching kids. I laughed because you said you did so well. And the whole

time I'm thinking I'm like, well, I graduated high school with a 1.6 grade one average heck am. But I did. I hated school. And I, you know, I was diagnosed dyslexic. And so it's one of those things that we train kids to have that structure. You go to school at 745. You do this. You

do that. And they're never able to be free thinkers. They're never able to think outside of the

box to be able to go. So then they get to college. And they're like, holy crap. I can sleep in. Well, I'm going to sleep in the mismic glass. Or I could do this. And so unfortunately, we're not really preparing kids for that next step. And they're like, even though we think we are, you know, I have a daughter who is her freshman year in college right now. And she did extremely well in school like national law. All of these things that she's supposed to do. Well, that's great for

high school. But like in college, it's like, well, okay, I have to be able to think outside of the box. I need to be able to problem solve. And we're not giving kids those skills. So there's a lot of charter schools and a lot of schools that are trying to kind of move through that where, you know, there's even entrepreneur type call or high schools now, where they're where their champion students who want to be entrepreneurs trying to cater to those students who do think outside of

point A to point B. I was the one that went from here to here to here to here to here to here. And I

got in trouble for it. So in school, I got in trouble for kind of giving end to the way my brain works because it's not the normal. But yeah, in real life, the way my brain works is awesome. Because it allows me to problem solve. And I've been able to disrupt education and be able to

“do things that I've been able to do because I think so differently. So it's just we need to encourage”

that in school. So so that our students can get out there and do things with the way their brain truly works as opposed to being kind of kept in this little space that that's not beneficial for them. I'm a firm believer in people taking the time. Like college, I believe it's such a formative time. Like we talk about high school and grade school as like the formative years. I'm a firm believer that college is a time for you to know yourself. Now what works for you and learn. But for some

people, it's very difficult to figure out, oh all right, I'm, you know, I'm an adult now or I'm just becoming an adult and I don't really know what works for me. Like this is what worked in high school, but that's not going to carry over to the real world in most scenarios. I'm a believer that most kids should actually take a gap between high school and college. Because in that gap time, maybe work a job, you know, go out there, try some stuff, figure out what's working for you,

and then go into college with that knowledge, know yourself first and then learn whatever it is that's going to take for you. Absolutely. Absolutely. What's your take on that? I completely agree.

“I think that we, you know, you take kids from high school and then you send them away to school”

and first time out of the nest. Oh yeah, first time out of the nest and, you know, do you know that most people who get their first job in life, like as like a post college,

have never worked a day in their life? Like most kids don't have jobs. A lot of kids don't have

drivers license anymore. So it's, it's one of those things that I personally think were coddling way too much and we were, you know, kind of clearing the past, the paths. So kids don't have adversity so that they'll do their best. Well then they get into life and life smacks them and it's like good luck with that. I mean, they're, they're not, they don't have the problem solving or the experience to know what do I do when this happens or what do I do because they've never

done it. And so I agree. I think it's a very, you know, we're trying to figure out who we are in college, but if we aren't giving them the opportunities to be able to really have true life experience where we're kind of short-changing the kids in many ways. Because college is kind of like a manufactured autonomy. Like, that's a really good way to say it. You have autonomy kind of like you're, but you're still the insulation of like, you know, you might be staying in the dorms.

Yep. You're, you're in the world, but you're like kind of in a bubble that is in the world.

“Yep. I think most kids should like right after high school, you should probably just”

hey, here's an introduction. This is the real world. Yep. This is a job. This is what that's

like. Oh, this is a job. Like, we're for the first time. When I got out of high school,

my first job out of high school, I was in mechanic for like five years before I ever touched a camera and my dad got me, you know, a job working as a porter at an accurate dealership and then they needed a technician. So I started super cool. They put me through the schooling to do that. Then I got my master certifications and all that stuff. But then I looked around and I was like, all the master texts are in their 60s and they have carpal tunnel in their hands and I want to be

able to play catch with my kids. So I'm going to switch careers. But like that life experience is so valuable. Unbelievable, valuable and unfortunately, parents think they're doing kids of favor by not making, we're going to focus on our studies. To you know that there are so many studies that kids who work during college have way higher grade point averages because they learn how to manage their time. They learn that, okay, I have to wake up and do this and have a test

the next morning. I probably, oh, and I have to work after that. I probably shouldn't stay up drinking all night long. So I mean, it's just one of those things that that we're trying to insulate them and give them, let them focus on what they need to focus on. But so where's the thing you could jiggle? That life experience you got by being a mechanic, being able to do those kinds of things. That prepared you so much more for life and we don't think, like even college sports, I

laugh because my son played D1 hockey and I laugh at how much parents are like, they're going to go and they're going to, they're going to, you know, we're going to, they're going to get a scholarship

kids sports and live by careously through their kids. But yet their kids, when they get to college,

most of my son's friends from his hockey team, they didn't graduate because it is so hard to manage your time to be able to play a high level sport, to be able to go to practices at 6 a.m. To be able, I mean, there's so many, oh, yeah, and you got to keep your grades up. Oh, yeah, and

“if you're not doing well, you need to then go to mandatory tutoring, which when, where, and we just,”

it's, it's funny because we expect so much of these kids. But yet, we're not giving them the tools they need to be able to succeed. So that's exactly what happened to my sister. My sister was my sister played soccer in high school. They, she won Nationals. She was widely recruited from across the country. She could go to any school. She wanted to get, she was getting scholarship offers from all over the country. And as soon as it came time to go to college, she was like, I, I can't do this.

Yes, I'm not, and meanwhile, my parents, my dad, as a huge soccer fan. So my parents were like,

“JD, you have to do this. You have to do that. Soccer should be the only thing that you're”

focusing on. And then as soon as it was time for it out, Tommy, she's like, I don't want to play soccer anymore. Well, because they're so burnt out. Yeah. They're so burnt. I mean, I remember these kids that had so like way better talent than my son did. They're like, I don't want to play. They're, they're like, I'm done. And so it is definitely one of those things that, you know, we do burn our own kids out. We're not giving them the tools they need to be able to succeed. We are not, well, you are giving

the tools that they need to succeed. Dr. Christie, one more time for the audience, can you let us know where we can find you, where we can follow you, all your socials, things like that. Sure. I'm Dr.

“Christie on Instagram. And I think also Facebook, but I don't pay attention. I am, um,”

who pay attention to Facebook. I know it's core. I know my kids always say, Mom, you're old.

When I go. I just use a, I just use a prayer. I know it will. That's exactly what they have. Good groups. That's true. But then I'm on, um, I have, um, Dr. Christie, YouTube, um, I have, Cornstone educational solutions.com. Um, you can go on our website. They're so, for parents to mark sure what to do, please go on our website. There's so much free content on there about every sort of disability, every, anything you can think of. And we also have digital courses on there.

So when I always say one, the most important thing is for parents to be educated, to be able to

walk into these meetings equipped with the right weapon. You know, no knowledge. And so there's some digital courses on there that are definitely able to kind of cut through all the noise and focus on what needs to be learned. So, um, that's all on my website. You know, it's, it might sound cliche, but knowledge is power is such a true statement. It's true, 100%. Guys, make sure that you go and check out Dr. Christie's episode on Legacy Makers. And with that, that is another episode of the

Living Your Legacy Podcast, I will catch you guys in the next one.