BFI Student Lunch Series – Talk as Capital: Using Behavioral Science and Technology to Make Everyday Conversations an Investment in Children’s Skills

Boxed lunches will be provided.

BFI’s Student Lunch Series invites prominent speakers to engage undergraduate and graduate students in discussions on economics. The talks highlight the practical use of economics for answering real-world questions pertinent to businesses and policy makers.

Why do so many American children start school already behind—and what can be done about it? Decades of research have shown that the roots of inequality develop in the earliest years, reflecting differences in skill-building opportunities within children’s home environments. Traditional parent programs aimed at addressing this issue are costly and difficult to scale. In this seminar, Professor Ariel Kalil, the Daniel Levin Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, will share the story and present new experimental results from the “Chat2Learn” parenting intervention. Chat2Learn is an AI-powered messaging tool developed at the Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab at the University of Chicago. It sends conversation prompts and illustrations to parents’ phones, encouraging the habits of parent-child talk that develop language, curiosity, and socio-emotional skills in preschool children. Chat2Learn demonstrates how behavioral science and technology can work together to help parents and reduce children’s skill gaps at scale.

If you have any questions, please reach out to bfi-events@uchicago.edu.