If you have a neurodivergent child or a child with maths anxiety, the summer holidays probably bring two feelings at once: relief that the pressure of school is off, and a quiet dread about what happens to their maths skills over six weeks away from it. You are not alone in that. The "summer slide" is real, and for children who already find numbers hard, the gap that opens up over the break can feel genuinely difficult to claw back in September.
The good news? There are ways to keep maths ticking over this summer that do not involve worksheets on the kitchen table, arguments, or tears. Here is what I have found that actually helps.
Why the Summer Slide Hits Harder for Some Children
When I looked into the research on summer learning loss, what stood out to me was that the slide is not evenly distributed. Children who already find a subject difficult tend to lose more ground than those who find it easy. Maths is particularly vulnerable because it is cumulative. A shaky grasp of times tables in Year 4 does not stay the same over summer. Without any low-level practice, it often gets shakier.
For neurodivergent children, there is an extra layer. Many children with dyscalculia, ADHD, dyslexia or high anxiety around numbers have spent the school year using a lot of emotional energy just coping with maths lessons. The last thing they want to hear in week one of the holidays is "right, let's do some maths practice." And honestly? That response is completely understandable.
What parents of these children keep telling us is that the worksheet approach creates conflict almost immediately. It signals "this is school work", and school work for many of these children carries stress. The battle is lost before a single question is answered.
The Shift That Changes Everything: Swap the Format, Not the Learning
Here is my main take on preventing the summer maths slide for anxious or neurodivergent children: the format of the practice matters far more than the frequency of it.
A child who does ten minutes of maths every other day in a format they actually enjoy will retain more, and build more confidence, than a child who reluctantly grinds through a worksheet for thirty minutes once a week while someone sits next to them looking anxious. The emotional experience of the practice shapes how the brain stores it.
So what formats work? In our early conversations with parents and schools, a few things come up again and again.
Games are the obvious answer, but not all games are equal. The ones that work best for children with maths anxiety tend to have a few things in common: they do not highlight mistakes in a harsh way, they give children a sense of control, they involve characters or themes the child already cares about, and they have a social or multiplayer element that shifts the child's focus from "I am doing maths" to "I am playing with someone".
That last point is bigger than it sounds. When a child is competing gently with a sibling or a friend in a maths game, the emotional focus moves away from the fear of getting something wrong. They are in game mode, not maths mode. And in game mode, they will try again after a wrong answer far more readily than they will on a worksheet.
Five Screen-Time Swaps Worth Trying This Summer
Rather than adding maths practice on top of everything else, try swapping some of the existing screen time your child already has. Here is how I think about it.
- Swap one session of passive video watching for a multiplayer maths game. The key word is multiplayer. Playing against a sibling, a cousin, or a friend online keeps the energy social and competitive rather than lonely and pressurised.
- Swap the "educational app" that feels like homework for one built around games they already recognise. Children are not fooled by apps that dress up worksheets as games. When the underlying mechanic is genuinely fun and built around characters or game formats they enjoy, the resistance drops.
- Swap timed tests for games without a visible failure state. Many children with maths anxiety developed that anxiety partly from timed recall tests. Summer is a brilliant time to rebuild the association between numbers and something that feels good, rather than something that measures and judges them.
- Swap solo practice for co-op or competitive play. Even ten minutes a few times a week keeps times-tables ticking over. If it happens alongside someone else, it barely feels like practice at all.
- Swap your own anxiety for trust in the process. This one is for parents. Children with maths anxiety are often picking up on adult worry around the subject. Choosing a format you can genuinely hand over to them, without hovering, can change the whole atmosphere.
As our founder Gal Darrash puts it, *"The children who struggle most with maths are often the ones who need the most positive experiences of it. Summer is a rare window to give them that, without the pressure of school performance hanging over it."*
What to Look for in a Summer Maths App
When I was looking at what was actually available for children in the SEND and maths-anxiety space, I noticed that a lot of the popular apps are built for children who are already reasonably confident. The ones that tend to work for anxious or neurodivergent learners share a few specific design choices.
SEND-friendly design means low sensory overwhelm: clean interfaces, no sudden loud noises to signal a wrong answer, and clear instructions that do not rely on reading speed. It also means the app does not humiliate a child for a wrong answer or parade their score publicly in a way that causes shame.
Multiplayer matters, but it needs to be handled carefully. Competitive multiplayer that pits a struggling child directly against a much faster child can reinforce the anxiety. The best versions allow for matched-ability play, or have a co-operative element where success is shared.
And the game framing needs to be genuine. Children can tell when a game is really just a worksheet with a cartoon on it. When the game mechanic itself is engaging, built around things they already love, the maths becomes the route to winning rather than the obstacle.
This is exactly what we built XTables Champions around. Our web app uses popular game formats that children already enjoy, with a multiplayer layer that makes practice feel like playtime. The SEND-friendly design is not an afterthought. It is central to how we built it, because we know that for many of the children who need maths practice the most, the standard approach simply does not work.
Give Your Child a Confident September
Summer does not have to be a battleground over maths, and it does not have to mean your child falls further behind. A little bit of the right kind of practice, in a format that respects how your child learns, can make a genuine difference to how they walk back into Year 5 or Year 6 in September.
If you are a parent of a child with maths anxiety, dyscalculia, or other neurodivergent needs and you want to see how XTables Champions works, I would love to show you. Head to xtableschampions.com and get in touch with us directly. Tell us a little about your child and we will help you work out whether our approach is the right fit for your summer. No obligation, just a genuine conversation.