Why Standard MTC Prep Fails SEND Kids | Times Tables Games

The Multiplication Tables Check itself is a timed, screen-based assessment. Children have six seconds per question, 25 questions, and the pressure is on. For a neurotypical child who has had plenty of confident practice, that format is manageable. For a child with dyscalculia, ADHD, working memory difficulties, or significant maths anxiety, it can be close to impossible, not because they don't know the facts, but because anxiety physically degrades recall under time pressure.

When I looked into the neuroscience behind this, even briefly, it's striking how clearly the research community has documented this effect. Timed assessments activate the brain's threat response. For children who already carry anxiety around maths, that response fires earlier and more intensely. The answers that were accessible in a calm practice session become genuinely harder to retrieve under the clock.

Most standard MTC prep tools replicate exactly that high-pressure format. Timed drills, question-after-question, score-focused feedback. They are, in effect, training children to perform under the conditions that most stress them. That is not a useful form of practice for a child with maths anxiety.

From the schools we speak to, a pattern comes up repeatedly. SENCOs and Year 4 teachers say they feel caught between the requirement to prepare children for the MTC and the reality that standard prep is visibly distressing for some of their pupils. One approach schools often try is simply reducing the time pressure during practice, which is a good instinct. But without a fundamentally different kind of engagement, many children still disengage, or practise avoidance behaviours that mean they aren't actually building fluency at all.

What we keep hearing is that the children who do build genuine times-tables fluency, including SEND pupils, are the ones who encounter multiplication in contexts where they feel safe and motivated. Play is one of those contexts.

As our founder Gal Darrash puts it, "Kids don't switch off their anxiety because you told them to relax. They switch it off because they're too busy having fun to remember they were anxious."

That observation sits at the heart of what XTables Champions is built around.

XTables Champions uses popular game formats that children already recognise and enjoy, with a strong multiplayer element. The reason multiplayer matters specifically for maths anxiety is that it shifts the emotional context of the practice. When a child is playing against a friend or classmate, the focus is on the game, not on whether they're going to get the answer right. The stakes feel different. The failure mode feels different. Getting a question wrong in a game is just part of the game. Getting a question wrong in a timed drill that feels like a test is shame.

For neurodivergent pupils particularly, that distinction is not trivial. Children with ADHD often genuinely engage with game-based formats in a way they simply can't with worksheet-style practice. Children with dyscalculia benefit from repeated, low-pressure exposure to number relationships, where the repetition doesn't feel like punishment. The multiplayer social layer also supports motivation in a way that solo drill tools rarely sustain.

I want to be clear that we are a young company, and I'm not going to invent grand statistics about outcomes. What I can say honestly is that the design choices we've made, SEND-friendly interfaces, game mechanics that children already know, low-pressure multiplayer formats, were made specifically because the standard tools are not working for a significant portion of Year 4 pupils, and that's been true every year since the MTC was introduced.

If you're a Maths Lead or SENCO doing your own post-MTC review right now, here are the questions I'd suggest asking about any prep tool you're considering for next year.

1. Does the tool replicate timed-test pressure, or does it build fluency in a genuinely different context?
2. Were the interface and interaction design tested with neurodivergent children, or is SEND support an afterthought?
3. Does the tool give children a reason to want to use it beyond being told to? Motivation is not optional for pupils with anxiety.
4. Can you see, as a teacher or SENCO, which children are engaging and which are avoiding, without requiring the children to flag their own distress?

Those four questions will quickly separate tools that are genuinely useful for SEND pupils from tools that are simply relabelled versions of the same drill-and-test approach that hasn't worked.

I'd also say: don't wait until the spring term to make a change. The children who benefit most from a different approach need the most time with it. September is the right moment to embed something new.

If your school is looking at its MTC results right now and thinking "we need to do something different for our SEND and neurodivergent pupils next year," I'd genuinely encourage you to get in touch with us at XTables Champions.

We built this tool specifically for children with maths anxiety and SEND needs, and we'd love to talk with Maths Leads, SENCOs, and class teachers about what you're seeing in your school and whether XTables Champions could help. You can reach us through xtableschampions.com. No hard sell, just an honest conversation about what your pupils need and whether we're the right fit.

The 2026 MTC has made the problem visible again. The 2027 MTC doesn't have to tell the same story.