Methods & Practice

Does correcting mistakes immediately help?

When a child gets an answer wrong, the correction has to come right then: not at the end of the session, and not next time. The brain takes in a correction best straight after the mistake.

What the research says

A study published in The Psychological Record compared three approaches with children practising times tables: immediate correction, delayed correction and no correction. Only immediate correction meaningfully reduced the mistakes that kept coming back. Delayed correction worked no better than no correction at all.

What this means in practice

A mistake needs to be corrected right then: not at the end of the session, and not next time. The brain takes in a correction best straight after the mistake, while the question is still fresh in mind.

Try this

When an answer is wrong, give the right one straight away and move on: don’t insist and don’t re-explain at length.
Ask the same fact again a few questions later, in the same session. Getting it right soon after a correction is especially effective.
Don’t let your child check their answers alone at the end: the longer the gap between the mistake and the fix, the less the fix helps.

→ When your child gets an answer wrong in TabTabTab, the app shows and says the right answer straight away, then brings the same question back later in the session.

TabTabTab trains recall, not understanding. Building the concept of multiplication is classroom work, and it comes first.

Sources

The Psychological Record — peer-reviewed study

Last reviewed: 2026-08-01