Why this one is different
The 2, 4 and 8 tables are doubling. The 5 and 10 tables have endings you can see. The 9 table has a trick that works every time. The 3 and 6 tables have the digit test. The 7 table has none of that — the answers 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63, 70 share no pattern a child can lean on. That is the whole difficulty, and it is not the child.
There are only three new facts
By the time the 7 table arrives, a child knows 7 × 1, 7 × 2, 7 × 3, 7 × 4, 7 × 5, 7 × 6 and 7 × 10 from the earlier tables — because 3 × 7 and 7 × 3 are the same fact. What is genuinely new is 7 × 7 = 49, 7 × 8 = 56 and 7 × 9 = 63. Three facts. A child who is told they have ten to learn is being told something untrue and discouraging.
56, the most missed answer in the grid
7 × 8 = 56 is the fact that survives into adulthood as the one people hesitate over. It has a small crutch that costs nothing: 5, 6, 7, 8 — fifty-six is seven eights. Say it in that order and it is a counting sequence rather than a fact.
Step from a fact you have
When the answer will not come, the way through is not to start the chant again. It is to stand on 7 × 5 = 35 or 7 × 10 = 70 and step. Seven eights is seventy take away two sevens: 70, 63, 56. The help button in the game does exactly this, and it names the fact it is standing on so a child learns the move and not just the answer.