Some children do not learn to write soft syllables and often make mistakes in them. Even in second and third grades. The reason for this may be the immaturity of the functions of planning and control, and then it is difficult for the child to plan his writing activities. But today I want to draw your attention to how the process of writing soft syllables occurs. To begin with, let’s take the rule presented in the Russian language textbook for the first grade by V. P. Kanakina, V. G. Goretsky: “The softness of consonant sounds is indicated in writing letters e, e, yu, i, and, as well as a soft sign.” Let's imagine ourselves in the place of a first-grader. What might he think about this rule? How can it be applied? Logical reasoning for applying any action must contain the following: if THIS, then we do THIS. In other words, a signal that determines the choice of action. For example, if the traffic light is red, we stop. If the floor is wet, wipe it. And in the rule that is proposed in the textbook, where is the sign that is a guide to action? Reading the rule, one gets the feeling that cause and effect are confused. Let's go from the other side. The above rule applies more to reading. Although, reading and writing are both types of analytical-synthetic forms of activity. But what is their difference? If, when reading, we do not know what word is in front of us, and in order to find out, we read, connecting letters into syllables, syllables into words. The process strives to combine letters and syllables into a word, that is, to synthesis. And this process relies on vision. What happens when writing from dictation? The student heard the word “ball” and needs to write it down. Each sound in a word is isolated, then encoded into a letter and written down. Consistently, from sound to sound. The process of sequentially isolating sounds from a word is called analysis. Based on hearing. So, when reading, analytical-synthetic activity is carried out with a large role of relying on vision, and when writing - with the help of relying on hearing. When reading, the child has the opportunity to see the next letter, which indicates that the previous one is softening. When writing, the child has no visual support. He relies only on hearing. Therefore, let’s return to how the rule should be formulated so that the child makes the correct decision about which letter he should write after m in the word “ball” - a or i. According to the logic of the writing process: “if a consonant sounds soft, then we write not A, O, U, E, but I, E, Yu, E.” As a rule, there are no problems with the letter I, because this sound is both heard and written. This rule easily guides the child when writing, as it corresponds to the logic of a sequential process. However, when applying the rule from the textbook and the rule proposed in this article, the student needs to remember: after a soft consonant we hear a, but we write i; We hear o, but we write e, etc. I formulate it this way: we write not a, but the letter with which it is “friends”. If you pull I, what letter will you hear at the end? Of course, the letter a. We pull yu - we hear y at the end. Which letters are “friends” is indicated on the poster with vowels and consonants and sounds, which hangs in each classroom. And here there is no need to introduce the knowledge that the letters i, ё, yu, e contain two sounds. This helps to avoid many mistakes like: instead of “anchor” - “anchor”, instead of “skirt” - “skirt”. In order for a student to successfully apply the rule, he must know and be able to: Distinguish vowel sounds from consonants. Know which vowels are “friendly.” It is good to identify soft consonants by ear. To reinforce this, I use a training task that I did myself. It asks you to write a word for the picture. The task is done according to the principle from simple to complex - from monosyllabic words without a combination of consonants - to a word of two, and then three syllables - to words with a combination of consonants. At first, I write a reminder about the rule on sheets of paper. I depicted it large in the photo for the post. Summarizing all of the above, we can conclude how to teach a first-grader.