ABSTRACT
[25] Emotional Signs By Dr. Stephen Wolkind Consultant Child Psychiatrist, Maudsley Hospital, London The preceding paper dealt with failure to thrive with its objective measurement by the centile chart. Many of us would wish that there was a similar test which could reveal to us the emotional development of a child or the quality of the parenting it has received. Obtaining and presenting the evidence of emotional abuse to a court is a very difficult task for the child psychiatrist. Our role is clearly not to decide what should happen but to give some form of guidance as to the possibilities and probabilities of what might follow for a child who is placed in different circumstances. We can deal only with the psychiatric aspects but for others, such as social workers, lawyers and magistrates, ethical, moral and legal issues are obviously also extremely relevant. The psychiatric guidelines can only be vague and deal with a limited part of the issue.
