Children writing in a foreign language. Dream or reality?

The new Ministerial Programmes for “Scuola Elementare” have included foreign language teaching (FLT) in the curriculum. They stress the importance of teaching the oral aspect of a foreign language, say very little about other language skills, and hardly mention the necessity of dealing with writing. Does this mean that language teachers should forget about it? Is writing less important than speaking? Are there no approaches for teaching writing to young learners? These issues seem to create problems and call for answers. The present paper offers some answers, illustrates what the literature says on the topic and presents some practical applications that will help those language teachers who consider the problem to be relevant to their teaching situation.