If your child has ADHD and times tables practice ends in a standoff most evenings, here is the thing that matters most: the problem almost certainly isn't your child's ability. It's the format of the practice. Changing the format, even slightly, can change everything. That's not a motivational phrase. It's the practical takeaway I keep coming back to from everything parents tell us, and from everything I've been reading and looking into lately.
Let me explain what I mean.
Why standard times tables practice is particularly hard for ADHD children
When I looked at what parents are searching for this week, "ADHD maths strategies" and "ADHD maths help" are both rising steadily on Pinterest right now. And when I look at what parents are actually saying, the frustration is consistent. One parent described it to me like this: their child can sit and play a multiplayer game for ninety minutes without moving, but ask them to sit with flashcards for five minutes and the whole evening falls apart.
That gap is real, and it isn't laziness or defiance. ADHD brains are wired to need novelty, stimulation and a sense of autonomy. Repetitive, low-stakes drill formats, whether that's flashcards, worksheets or a digital keypad asking the same question on a loop, don't give the ADHD brain what it needs to stay regulated and engaged. The result is avoidance, meltdown or, at best, going through the motions while retaining nothing.
What makes this worse is when the practice involves a timer. From the parents and teachers we speak to at XTables Champions, this one comes up again and again: the moment a countdown clock appears on screen, the child's focus shifts entirely from the maths to the clock. Working memory, which is already a challenge for ADHD children, gets hijacked by the pressure. The child freezes. They "forget" facts they knew perfectly well five minutes earlier. Then they feel stupid, which is completely unfair and completely predictable given how that format works.
As our founder Gal Darrash puts it, "We built XTables Champions because we kept hearing from parents that their child wasn't struggling with maths. They were struggling with the way maths was being tested."
So what does actually help?
Here's what I've found works, drawing on what parents share with us and what the most useful conversations online are pointing towards.
Match the practice to how your child already plays. This sounds obvious but it's worth sitting with. If your child is drawn to multiplayer games, competitive formats, building things or storytelling, look for maths practice that uses those same hooks. A child who loves Roblox has already demonstrated they can concentrate, follow rules and persist through challenge. The issue is motivation and format, not capacity.
Keep sessions very short to start. ADHD children often do better with three sharp, engaging minutes than fifteen dragging ones. Don't push through. Stop while it's still going well. That positive ending matters more than the total time spent.
Remove the visible timer wherever possible. If you're using an app or website that has a big countdown clock, see if you can turn it off or find an alternative. The maths learning can still happen at pace without making the clock the enemy.
Give your child some control. Let them choose which times table to practise, which game mode to use, or even just what character or avatar represents them. ADHD children respond well to autonomy. Even a small choice makes a real difference to buy-in.
Make it social where you can. ADHD children often engage better when there's another person involved, whether that's you sitting next to them, a sibling joining in, or an app that includes a multiplayer element against other children. The social dimension brings novelty and energy that solo drilling simply doesn't.
Don't make homework the first thing after school. For many ADHD children, the school day is an enormous regulatory effort. Jumping straight into more demands when they walk through the door often leads to the worst outcomes. Let them decompress first, even if that's twenty minutes outside or free play. You'll often find a much calmer, more available child afterwards.
On the question of scaffolding
One thing parents often tell me is that their ADHD child seems to "know" a times table one day and then completely blank on it the next. This is frustrating but it's normal. ADHD affects working memory and retrieval, so a fact that was accessible yesterday can feel gone today, especially under any kind of pressure.
Scaffolded practice, where the child is gently prompted and supported rather than simply tested, helps here. The goal isn't to catch them not knowing. It's to build the neural pathway through repeated, low-pressure exposure until retrieval becomes automatic. That takes longer for some children, and that's fine. It doesn't mean they can't get there.
A note on screen time guilt
I notice "educational screen time" coming up more and more as a search, and I think a lot of parents are quietly wrestling with whether it's okay to let their child practise maths through a game on a screen. I want to be straightforward with you: if your child is actively engaged, building real fluency and not in a state of anxiety, a screen-based game is genuinely valuable practice time. The medium isn't the problem. The quality and the format are what matter.
The parents I hear from who feel best about screen-based maths practice are the ones whose children have chosen to go back to it, who talk about it at dinner, who feel proud of their progress. That's the outcome we should be aiming for.
How XTables Champions approaches this
We built XTables Champions specifically for children who struggle with the traditional formats. The platform is designed without the pressure of countdown timers, without sensory overload, and with multiplayer games that children actually want to play. The idea is that a child who has always "hated maths" can discover that what they actually hate is being made to feel like they're being tested, constantly, on a clock.
For ADHD children in particular, the combination of popular multiplayer game formats, meaningful progress (rather than just a score), and a calm, uncluttered interface makes a real difference. We hear this from parents and teachers regularly, and it's the reason we keep developing in this direction.
If your child is struggling with times tables and you think the format might be the problem, I'd genuinely encourage you to explore what XTables Champions offers. Visit xtableschampions.com to find out more, and if you have questions about whether it's right for your child, get in touch. We're a small team and we're happy to talk.