Tilli launched on Children’s Day; free access in Sinhala, Tamil, and English
View(s):Tilli, the inclusive, play-based, social-emotional learning (SEL) tool that teaches five to ten year olds how to stay safe, healthy, and happy was launched in Sri Lanka on Children’s Day. Tilli is an inclusive play-based, social-emotional learning tool for five to ten year olds that builds metacognition, empathy, and critical thinking skills.
On the October 1, Tilli was launched with kids across the country on the Nenasa online learning platform, in proud partnership with the Dialog Foundation, which will deliver free access to Tilli in three languages – Sinhala, Tamil and English.
Tilli was co-founded by Kavindya Thennakoon and Vidya Sri and conceptualised at the Stanford School of Education. It has been successfully used by nearly 300+ young learners and adults from across the world. Tilli was also selected by Lego in the Global Top 3 Future Play Design Challenge 2021.
Tilli was co-created with children, parents, and teachers in Sri Lanka and user-tested with 270 early learners, 150+ teachers, and parents from eight different countries.
Tilli uses evidence-based learning interventions, to build resilient mental models that help children stay safe, healthy, and happy.
Tilli’s user testing demonstrated that 95% of users were fully engaged in completing the activities while 96% of children felt confident to recognise an unsafe situation and say “no”. The user testing also revealed that 85% of parents felt well positioned to have honest and meaningful conversations with their children after Tilli.
Tilli uses inclusive game mechanics, narrative storytelling, and curated conversations with a tried and tested behavioural change framework – ‘Learn-Apply-Reflect’ – to help children build resilient mental models on every SEL topic.
Globally, it is estimated that one out of two children aged 2–17 years’ experience some form of violence each year. Emotional violence affects one in three children, and worldwide one in four children lives with a mother who is the victim of intimate partner violence. According to UNICEF, close to one-third of cases in the high court related to a child victim, and over half of all crimes reported against children are committed by known persons including parents and other relatives.
The National Child Protection Authority has received more than 79,200 complaints on Child Abuse since 2012 and according to a report released in 2020, Sri Lanka was ranked at 60th place for protecting children among all countries in the world. Sri Lanka has placed a high priority on the protection of children with a focus on prevention and early intervention.
Reacting to abuse and violence to protect children has not been reliable or sustainable. One part of the solution lies in creating impactful learning experiences that start early, and have the ability to break cycles of violence.
Tilli’s core mission is to ensure children everywhere have access to high-quality social-emotional learning. With its launch in Sri Lanka, their next step is the user testing of private beta with schools – which is already getting multiple requests from principals and teachers around the island.
“In the next year, we will be focusing on plans to develop our market in the United States where half of our team is based,” a spokesperson stated. Tilli has been designed to address some of the major gaps and needs in the SEL market including equitable and trauma-informed SEL and the effective measurement of SEL outcomes.
In the United States, educators are concerned with the gaps in education caused by the pandemic and the closure of schools. This has produced negative social and emotional learning outcomes in children that need to be addressed successfully.
Children have been forced to stay at home, not attend school, and not engage with their peers. Globally, this has affected more than 90 percent of the world’s student population; 1.5 billion children and young people overall. Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is a necessity for the healthy development of children. This absence of play creates a social-emotional learning gap that Tilli can help to fill.
Parents and Teachers can access Tilli on their mobiles through Nenasa and the team is currently recruiting schools and learning centers for private beta testing. Interested schools and centres can email the team at info@tillikids.org to participate.
(By Tharushi Weerasinghe)