Journalist and best selling author Malcolm Gladwell has a lesson that will help your children progress better in maths and times tables.

My favorite Gladwell book is 'Outliers' which focuses on what makes individuals and groups achieve.

In this article we shall focus on what makes children a success in maths and the times tables.

Gladwell's view is that a person's upbringing and circumstances have a major impact on their abilities rather then their inborn qualities.

What can we learn from him with respect to children learning times tables and maths in general?

Gladwell reviews the number systems used in the West and the East to see what difference this makes to children learning these systems.

The number systems are very different and affect how easily children learn maths.

Compared to the Western number system the Eastern one is far more logical and makes it easy to carry out mathematical activities.

Look at the following to get some sense of this;

In Eastern countries the following numbers given in the standard English way are given in the way they are expressed in Eastern countries such as China and Japan.

So, what would 63 be using and eastern based number system. Easy, the answer is six tens three. A very logical and straight forward method of counting.

The result of this difference is that Asian children learn to count much quicker than Western children.

To emphasise this Gladwell notes that when eastern children are four years old they can count to forty whereas American children can count to fifteen at that age.

The Eastern number system makes addition and subtraction much easier than in the West.

This affects Eastern children's attitude towards maths so that they are much more positive about it than in the West.

Because the number system makes it easier to follow, Eastern children can find the patterns in maths.

Eastern children can more easily work out what is happening and maths and number are easier to understand at a much younger age.

Because of this factor the very important maths area of times tables is learned earlier in Eastern countries than in Western ones.

The amazing thing is this. Even though a Western child has a disadvantage in numbers compared to an Eastern child the balance in learning times tables can be hugely addressed.

The answer is pretty easy and involves the use of colourful images to embed the times tables and their answers in your children's minds so that they remember the them esily.

This improves maths and times tables learning by focusing the learning on use of memory rather than having to learn numbers by rote. It is what the world memory champions do.

Images and location are two key ingredients to learning times tables really well.

For more information on times tables, go to www.timestablesmaths.com.