This guidebook is designed to help parents, teachers, day care professionals, nannies, and others in the childcare arena recognize signs of distress in children's drawings. The handbook is intended for those with little or no knowledge of art therapy. Information the book provides is a compilation of indicators that commonly appear in the drawings of abused children. The guide does not contain complete information regarding art therapy and should be used only as a general guide to help the reader take the first step in the decision to get professional help for a child at risk. Teachers and parents, the largest group of caregivers, should especially benefit from this guide; since childhood trauma is an emotional issue, and parents and teachers can easily jump to conclusions based on incomplete information, the concrete characteristics and interpretations in this book will help readers be more objective when analyzing children's art. The book's main goal is to help caregivers gather enough information to decide whether or not a child should be evaluated by experts. Types of abuse are covered here, along with a discussion of developmental aspects of drawings and ways to analyze drawings. Appended is a reference list of major abuse characteristics. Contains a glossary, 57 references, and an index. (RJM)