Memory & Retention

Why does my child keep forgetting times tables?

Forgetting times tables is normal. It's a predictable result of how the brain stores them.

What the research says

Brain imaging studies by Dehaene & Cohen (1997) and Dehaene et al. (1999) show that times tables are stored in the language areas of the brain, not the maths ones. They are verbal memories, like the lyrics of a song or a poem. Like any verbal memory, they need to be recalled from time to time to stay accessible. Without that, they fade.

This explains something parents notice all the time: a child seems to “know” a table one week and forgets it the next. They haven’t lost their understanding of maths. They’ve lost a memory that wasn’t practised enough to stick.

A 2019 study confirmed this in children: times tables that weren’t recalled regularly faded in a measurable way, no matter how well they had been learned at first.

What this means in practice

Forgetting isn’t failure, it’s biology. The answer is a way of practising that reviews the tables before they fade, instead of re-teaching them from scratch every time.

Try this

Don’t wait until your child has forgotten a table to review it. Recall works best just before forgetting, not after. If you like, TabTabTab tells you when it’s the right moment.
Mix older, “learned” tables into daily practice along with new ones. Assuming a table is learned for good (especially after the summer break!) is the most common reason children forget.

→ TabTabTab uses spaced repetition: it brings back each fact at growing intervals (1 day, 3 days, a week, two weeks…), just before it fades. That way your child doesn't forget it and doesn't have to learn it all over again.

Sources

Dehaene & Cohen (1997) — peer-reviewed study
Dehaene et al. (1999) — peer-reviewed study
PMC (2019) — peer-reviewed study

Last reviewed: 2026-08-01