[Is my child normal, doctor? The specifics of child psychiatric examination]

The psychiatric assessment of a child requires to integrate the symptoms presented, for example, the child's suffering, in an array of complex family interactions The consultation process is difficult for parents and child, but also for the physician. Many pitfalls exist for everyone, namely the stigma attached to a disease, the search for normality at any price, the seduction of a reductive explanatory theory, and especially the oversight of the child's evolutionary potential. Finally, the characteristics of examination vary at each age; the differences may be major and depend on the development of the child in the process of empowerment.