Detecting Child Abuse: Recognizing Children at Risk Through Drawings [Paperback]

Lynne Cantlay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1996

Protect your children by understanding common everyday drawings. Drawings do not lie!

Detecting Child Abuse is an extremely useful book for teachers, parents, caregivers, and therapists who work with children. It presents basic techniques for analyzing drawings. Readers learn about normal developmental stages of drawing and the "red flags" sent by children in distress. This important book will help people identify troubled children in order to recommend professional evaluation before long-term harm sets in.

This book is unique because all the basic signs identifying abuse are listed in one single source. This book is packed with visual examples and includes a workbook section that actually lets you practice what you have learned.

Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

A few years ago, a case in Morgan County Circuit Court involved an expert witness who specialized in analyzing children's drawings, looking for signs and symbols of child abuse. The field at the time was unknown to many people, but now parents, teachers and others can get a crash course through a new handbook, Detecting Child Abuse.

From The New Yorker

This is an excellent resource for those of us who work with abused children (or children from high risk families) but do not have any formal training in the assessment of children's drawings. Very thorough and practical!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 115 pages
• Publisher: Holly Pr; 1st edition (December 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965106829
• ISBN-13: 978-0965106825
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,348,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing, October 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Detecting Child Abuse: Recognizing Children at Risk Through Drawings (Paperback)

I was intrigued by the title of this book, but very disappointed with its contents. The author appears to believe that children's drawings can be reduced to a series of elements which can lead one to deduce that abuse has occurred. While this may or may not be true, many of the resources that are used to support the author's premise are outdated (many from before 1960) and do not necessarily apply to children's art. The author has also neglected the more recent research in the field of art therapy which has dealt with drawings as aids in assessment of child abuse. As a therapist with almost 20 years of experience in working with abused and neglected children, I found this book to be ironically somewhat abusive of the children it seeks to identify and help. As an alternative to this book, I suggest that those interested in this topic read the works of Eliana Gil and a more recent book by Cathy Malchiodi on the complexities of children's drawings (Understanding Children's Drawings); both authors provide a framework and discussion of the ethical use of children's drawings as diagnostic aids, something this author has failed to integrate into this particular volume.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars poorly written and researched, May 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Detecting Child Abuse: Recognizing Children at Risk Through Drawings (Paperback)

I too was very disappointed by this book which is poorly written and researched. The author has not taken into consideration the many aspects of children's drawings and looked no futher than the projective literature to make a case for detecting child abuse through drawings. I kept feeling that this book was hastily put together to cash in on a topic that many worry about.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An indispensable resource for those who serve children, June 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Detecting Child Abuse: Recognizing Children at Risk Through Drawings (Paperback)

Dr. Cantlay has put together a great system for helping those of us who work with children to decipher the disturbing content we often see in children's artwork. I was skeptical, because I have other books like this on my shelf. This is the first one I felt I could really use to come to conclusions about the cries for help I sometimes hear in children's drawings. I highly recommend it to teachers, therapists, daycare providers, and parents.