If your Year 4 data from the June 2026 Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) is sitting on your desk and you're looking at a cluster of low scores from your SEND and higher-anxiety pupils, here is the honest answer: those results are not a reflection of what those children are capable of. They are a reflection of how poorly timed, pressure-heavy assessments tend to measure the wrong thing for the wrong learners. The question now is what you do with that data before September.
Across teaching forums and SENCO networks over recent weeks, I've been reading a very consistent thread: schools are not surprised by the gap, but they are frustrated. They know their neurodivergent pupils understand multiplication at some level. What fell apart was retrieval under pressure, within a timed format, alone at a screen. That is a very specific set of conditions, and it does not have to define what Year 5 looks like for these children.
Why the MTC Format Is Particularly Hard for Neurodivergent Learners
The MTC is six seconds per question, 25 questions, no context, no story, no peers. For a neurotypical child who has drilled their tables in a low-anxiety environment, that can work fine. For a child with ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, or any form of maths anxiety, those six seconds become a kind of freeze response.
When I looked into the research on maths anxiety specifically, what stood out was how directly timed assessments activate the brain's threat response. It is not about intelligence or even fluency at that point. It is about working memory being hijacked by stress. The six-second window is not long enough for an anxious child to regulate and retrieve, and the MTC gives them no other route through.
The single biggest thing schools can do this summer is decouple times-tables practice from that timed, solitary, high-stakes format entirely.
That sounds obvious. The harder question is: what do you replace it with?
Why Rote Learning Does Not Fix Maths Anxiety
The instinct after a disappointing MTC is to go back to basics: flashcards, chanting, timed tests at home over summer. I understand it, but in my view it is likely to make things worse for the exact pupils we are talking about.
Rote repetition works for children who are already comfortable. For a child who has just experienced a stressful MTC and come away feeling like they "failed maths", returning to the same method is going to reinforce that association. You are asking them to do more of the thing that felt bad, in the same format that felt bad, with the same implied outcome if they get it wrong.
What those pupils need is a completely different context for encountering times tables. One that feels low-stakes, social, and genuinely fun. One where multiplication is not the test but the means to something else they already care about.
Game-Based Learning: What the Evidence Points Towards
From the schools we have been speaking to in our early conversations, the common thread in successful SEND interventions is not a different worksheet. It is a different emotional register. Children who had disengaged from maths entirely began re-engaging when the context changed to something playful and multiplayer, something where the maths was almost incidental to whatever they were trying to win or build.
Game-based learning gives neurodivergent pupils several things they do not get from drilling:
- Intrinsic motivation. They are playing because they want to, not because they have been told to revise.
- Repeated low-stakes exposure. Games require dozens of number interactions per session with no single make-or-break moment.
- Social reinforcement. Multiplayer formats mean peers are celebrating with them, not watching them struggle alone.
- Immediate feedback that is not punitive. Getting a question wrong in a game means "try again" not "you failed".
As our founder Gal Darrash puts it, *"The goal was never to make a maths app. It was to make something kids would choose to play, where maths just happened to be in the way."*
That shift in framing matters enormously for pupils who have already had a difficult MTC experience.
What to Look for in an MTC Intervention Tool for SEND
Not all "fun maths" tools are actually designed with neurodivergent learners in mind. Here is what I would look for specifically if I were a SENCO or Year 4 teacher planning an autumn term intervention.
First, does the tool use games that children already recognise and want to play? There is a meaningful difference between a game that is thinly wrapped around a worksheet and a platform built around popular game formats that pupils are already motivated by. The engagement has to be genuine or anxious learners will see through it quickly.
Second, is there a multiplayer element? The social dimension is not a nice-to-have for SEND pupils, it is actually part of what makes the experience feel safe. Playing alongside peers shifts the dynamic from "I am being tested" to "we are playing together". That is a significant emotional change.
Third, is the design clean and low-sensory-load? Cluttered screens, flashing elements and excessive sound effects can be genuinely overwhelming for autistic pupils and those with sensory sensitivities. SEND-friendly design needs to be considered from the ground up, not retrofitted.
Fourth, does it give teachers and SENCOs useful data without requiring huge amounts of setup? The best intervention tools work for staff too, not just pupils.
Practical Steps for September
If you are planning your autumn term response to the MTC data right now, here is how I would approach it.
Start by identifying which pupils scored low due to anxiety or neurodivergent processing rather than lack of exposure. These are different problems and they need different responses. A child who has not been taught the 7 times table needs direct teaching. A child who knows it at home but froze in the MTC needs a different emotional experience of maths, not more content.
For the anxiety and SEND cohort, build in a regular, low-pressure session using game-based tools that pupils actually look forward to. Keep it short, keep it social, and be explicit with the children that this is not a test. Over time, that repeated positive association starts to shift the threat response.
Talk to parents too. What we keep hearing is that parents of anxious children feel helpless after a poor MTC result. Giving them a tool their child can use at home, one that feels like gaming rather than homework, changes that dynamic completely.
Talk to Us About Supporting Your SEND Pupils
At XTables Champions, we have built our platform specifically for this. Every design decision, from the multiplayer game formats to the SEND-friendly interface, has been made with children who struggle with maths anxiety in mind. We are a young company, still growing and learning from the schools we work with, but that closeness to our users is exactly what shapes what we build.
If you are a Year 4 or Year 5 teacher, a SENCO, or a senior leader looking at your MTC data and thinking about what comes next, I would genuinely love for you to get in touch. You can reach the team at xtableschampions.com to find out more about how XTables Champions works in practice and whether it would be a good fit for your school. No obligation, just a real conversation about your pupils.