Dominic O'Brien is an eight times world memory champion and has brought the subject of memory to the forefront of the media.

Memorizing 54 packs of cards is the amazing feat Dominic accomplished to gain a place in the Guinness Book of records.

To gain his place he memorized a pack of cards in 38.29 seconds.

These are incredible feats but what relevance do they have for learning times tables?

Well to begin with, Dominic had to memorize a massive amount of numbers to become a world champion.

Obviously Dominic had to find a trusted method to enable him to achieve this amazing feat.

His view on numbers is one which is very interesting because it is shared by so many people.

Dominic's view was numbers can look cold and unfeeling, thus making the numbers more difficult to remember for people.

If children regard numbers as cold and unfeeling, they will not want to learn their times tables.

Numbers can be difficult to remember if people think the numbers are cold and unfeeling.

Dominic's view is it is not as easy to group numbers together as it would be if you had words that represented something.

By grouping the letters together you could have an emotion, an image, or a person which is easy to remember.

This is the key to remembering numbers. In order to remember them you need to turn the numbers into an image or a person.

Dominic turns numbers into various people which makes them come alive, and be interesting and memorable.

Using this method he managed in 5 minutes to memorize 360 random numbers.Dominic and other memory champions who have set the memory records are not geniuses or 'savants'.

The amazing memory records were achieved by simple techniques.

Children in the past have always learnt their times tables by rote.Very few brilliant memory records would have been achieved if the existing champions had used the rote learning method to remember.

Children using the methods used by Dominic and other memory champions would have a huge advantage if they too knew how to apply the techniques.

Any child's confidence will grow when they use this quick and efficient method.You have now learnt the first secret in learning times tables from the memory champions.