The Schulte Table: The Simplest Way to Train Attention

When a child sits down to homework and starts drifting after five minutes, parents often look for complicated solutions. Yet one of the simplest ways to train attention is a sheet of paper with scrambled numbers on it. This is the Schulte table. You can make one at home in five minutes, and the exercise itself takes just a few minutes a day.

What is a Schulte table?

A Schulte table is a square grid with numbers placed in random order. The classic version is 5×5 with the numbers 1 to 25. The task is simple: find the numbers in order — 1, 2, 3 and so on — as quickly as possible, pointing to or tapping each one. The table is named after the German psychiatrist Walter Schulte and was originally used to assess attention. Today it is widely used to train attention, visual search speed and peripheral vision.

The exercise asks for several things at once: keeping the goal in mind ("I'm looking for 14 now"), ignoring the other numbers and quickly scanning the whole grid. So although it is short, it gives a child a proper workout.

The rules: how to do it

1. Place the table roughly 30–40 cm from the eyes so the whole grid is visible at a glance.
2. Keep your eyes on the centre. Ideally the gaze stays in the middle of the table and the numbers are found with peripheral vision. This is hard at first — it is fine for a child to move their eyes, but encourage them to hold the centre a little longer each time.
3. Find the numbers in order, starting from 1, pointing to each one or saying it silently.
4. Time it. Start the stopwatch when your child begins looking for the first number and stop it at the last.
5. Use a new table every time. If the same table is repeated, your child memorises the positions and the exercise turns from attention training into memory training.

Which size suits which age?

Choose the size by your child's current level more than by age. The breakdown below is a rough guide:

• Ages 6–7: 3×3 (1–9). A starting point for children who know their digits well but cannot yet hold attention for long.
• Ages 7–9: 4×4 (1–16). Move up once 3×3 is confident and error-free.
• Over 9: 5×5 (1–25). The classic size, used by older children and adults alike.

The rule for moving up is simple: when your child handles the current table calmly and without mistakes for several days in a row, it is time to make it harder. If the new size makes them anxious, stepping back a level is not a failure.

For extra challenge there are variations: finding numbers in reverse (from 25 down to 1), using letters instead of numbers, or a two-colour table where black numbers are found in ascending order and red numbers in descending order, taking turns.

How to make a paper version at home

You do not even need a printer:

1. On squared or plain paper, draw a 5×5 grid with each cell about 3×3 cm.
2. Write the numbers 1 to 25 on small slips of paper, shuffle them and fill in the cells in whatever order they come out.
3. Write all the numbers the same size and thickness, so none of them stands out.
4. Prepare 5–10 different tables at once, so there is a fresh one every day.

Younger children can colour the grid in or help make it themselves — playing with a table you made is more fun.

Common mistakes

• Using the same table over and over. Scores "improve", but it is memory at work, not attention.
• Starting too big. Give a six-year-old a 5×5 straight away and the exercise soon becomes unpleasant.
• Putting speed ahead of accuracy. Slower and correct is better than fast with wrong taps.
• Sessions that are too long. Twenty tables in a row is tiring. Attention training works best in short bursts.
• Comparing with other children. Let your child compete only with their own result from yesterday.
• Practising when tired. Late in the evening or after long lessons, scores drop and confidence suffers.

If your child makes maths mistakes even on things they know, attention is often the reason. We wrote about this in our article on careless mistakes in maths.

How much and when to practise

A good routine is 3–5 tables a day, up to 5 minutes, four or five times a week. It works well as a warm-up before homework: after a few tables it is easier for a child to settle and focus.

Keep a simple log: date, size, time and number of mistakes. Look at the trend over weeks rather than days — progress is not a straight line, and some days will be worse, which is perfectly normal. For other practical ways to build focus, see our article on improving a child's concentration.

The Schulte table is useful, but it is not the only tool. It works best alongside good sleep, outdoor time and other brain games.

The Schulte table in MentalMath

Making new paper tables and timing every attempt takes up a parent's time. In the Schulte Grid game in MentalMath, a freshly shuffled table appears every time, and time and mistakes are counted automatically. There are three levels — Easy (4×4), Medium (5×5) and Hard (6×6) — with 3 rounds each. At the end your child sees each round's time, the number of mistakes and their best result, and a new record shows up straight away.

If you want to work on attention more systematically, you can choose the 14-day "Train attention" focus in Brain Plan: games such as Schulte, Stroop and Go/No-Go are combined with mental arithmetic in the daily plan. And for the youngest children, a 3×3 paper table is the best first step.