Types of Child Abuse and How they may be Recognised Child abuse can be categorised into four different types: 

• Neglect 
• Emotional abuse 
• Physical abuse 
• Sexual abuse

The following are features of child neglect: 

• Children being left alone without adequate care and supervision 
• Malnourishment, lacking food, unsuitable food or erratic feeding Non-organic failure to thrive, i.e. a child not gaining weight due not only to malnutrition but also emotional deprivation 
• Failure to provide adequate care for the child’s medical and developmental needs, including intellectual stimulation
• Inadequate living conditions–unhygienic conditions,environmental issues,including lack of adequate heating and furniture
• Lack of adequate clothing Inattention to basic hygiene Lack of protection and exposure to danger, including moral danger, or lack of supervision appropriate to the child’s age
• Persistent failure to attend school 
• Abandonment or desertion

Emotional abuse may be seen in some of the following ways:

• Rejection
• Lack of comfort and love
• Lack of attachment
• Lack of proper stimulation (e.g. fun and play)
• Lack of continuity of care (e.g. frequent moves, particularly unplanned)
• Continuous lack of praise and encouragement 
• Persistent Criticism,sarcasm,hostility or blaming of the child
• Bullying 
• Conditional parenting in which care or affection of a child depends his other behaviours or actions
• Extreme Overprotectiveness
• Inappropriate non-physical punishment (e.g. locking child in bedroom) 
• Ongoing family conflict and family violence
• Seriously inappropriate expectations of a child relative to his/her age and stage of development

Physical abuse can include the following:

• Physical punishment 
• Beating, slapping, hitting or kicking
• Pushing,shakingorthrowing
• Pinching, biting, choking or hair-pulling 
• Use of excessive force In handling
• Deliberate Poisoning
• Suffocation
• Fabricated/induced illness
• Female genital mutilation

Examples of child sexual abuse include the following:

• Any sexual act intentionally performed in presence of a child
• An invitation to sexual touching or intentional touching or molesting of a child’s body whether by a person or object for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification
• Masturbation in the presence of a child or the involvement of a child in an act of masturbation
• Sexual intercourse with a child,whether oral,vaginal or anal 
• Sexual exploitation of a child,which includes: Inviting ,inducing or coercing a child to engage in prostitution or the production of child pornography (for example, exhibition, modelling or posing for the purpose of sexual arousal, gratification or sexual act, including its recording (on film, videotape or other media) or the manipulation, for those purposes, of an image by computer or other means] » Inviting, coercing or inducing a child to participate in, or to observe, any sexual, indecent or obscene act » Showing sexually explicit material to children, which is often a feature of the ‘grooming’ process by perpetrators of abuse 
• Exposing a child to inappropriate or abusive material through information and communication technology 
• Consensual sexual activity involving an adult and an underage person