From Data to Play: How Tilli is Closing the Foundational Skills Gap

Tilli is a foundational skill-building tool that was incubated at the Stanford School of Education. 

The result is a comprehensive approach that measures and builds 12 foundational skills highly linked to three critical life outcomes: academic success, financial stability, and mental well-being. They start as early as the age of 3. 

But what does this look like in practice? Let’s step into Ms. Mila’s 2nd-grade classroom to see how Tilli translates high-level data into everyday magic.

The Classroom Experience: Precision Meets Play

Ms. Mila doesn’t start her year with a generic curriculum or a one-size-fits-all lesson plan. Instead, she begins with data.

Through Tilli, every second grader in her class is assessed across 12 cognitive and social-emotional skills. 

This assessment is triangulated, combining observations from Ms. Mila, input from caregivers, and direct assessments with the child. This generates over 100 high-quality data points per student, creating a 360-degree view of the classroom.

This is where AI becomes a game-changer. Tilli’s fine-tuned Large Language Models (LLMs) analyze this learning data at scale - in multiple languages to share insights that are relevant, actionable, and specifically geared towards Ms. Mila’s classroom context.

Digital at-home assessments completed by a parent and their child 
Photo Credits: Tilli

This is where AI comes into the picture - Tilli’s fine-tuned LLMs will analyze the learning data at scale in multiple different languages and share insights with Ms. Mila that are relevant, actionable, and geared towards her first-grade classroom. 

Your Personal Data Scientist

Ms. Mila, who speaks Arabic, can query the data using "Ask Tilli" in the language of her choice. Instead of sifting through spreadsheets, she simply asks:

“What are the two cognitive skills I should prioritize for the next three weeks?”

“Is low attendance impacting my students' attention and working memory?”

“Create a 15-minute activity targeting a social-emotional skill my class is struggling with.”

Gone are the generic prompts that lead to generic lesson plans. In their place is a personalized data scientist and learning designer, dedicated entirely to Ms. Mila.

From Insight to Intervention

Without this data, Ms. Mila might have only seen a student like Sam as "struggling with math." But Tilli’s insights peeled back the layers to reveal the why: Sam was highly creative but struggled with working memory, a cognitive bottleneck impacting his basic subtraction.

Armed with this understanding, Ms. Mila activates Tilli’s 36-week intervention plan. These aren’t dry drills; they are beautifully designed, play-based interventions. Every week, for 30 minutes, the class engages in targeted activities like “10 Sounds,” a mindfulness technique that has transformed chaotic class transitions into moments of focused calm.

For students like Sam, the weekly Emotion Tracker builds a vocabulary far beyond "happy" or "sad," empowering them to unpack complex feelings. By Week 12, they advance to emotion management, using tools like the ABCDE strategy to experiment with regulation techniques and discover what works best for them when emotions feel big and overwhelming.

Instead of spending 15 minutes just to get the kids to sit down, they now start the class with “10 sounds,” a fun mindfulness technique that has made class transitions a breeze. 

The weekly emotion tracker helps kids like Sam build their emotion vocabulary beyond words like ‘happy’ and ‘sad’ to help them unpack those big emotions and to name them. Towards week 12, they move to skills like emotion management, where they start playing with different emotion regulation strategies from the ABCDE toolbox to figure out what works for them when emotions are big and difficult. 

Measurable Impact

Time moves fast in a second-grade classroom. By Week 18, it is time for the midline assessment.

Ms. Mila collects the same round of data, completed within a single day, and uses "Ask Tilli" to visualize exactly how her 25 students have grown.

The results speak for themselves.

• 95% of classrooms using Tilli report a significant reduction in behavioral complaints by Week 12.
• A report by Save the Children found that 9 out of 10 children using Tilli showed measurable improvement in emotion regulation and empathy.

By combining the precision of AI with the joy of tangible play, Tilli isn't just teaching skills; it is reshaping how we understand and support the developing brain, one classroom at a time.

Learn more about Tilli’s collaboration with UNRWA and the UNICEF Innovation Fund reaching over 6000+ first graders in Jordan: https://www.unicef.org/innovation/stories/supporting-palestine-refugee-childrens-well-being-jordan