According to Focus Child Services  there are four major types of child abuse:  physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse.
 

Physical Abuse is characterized by the infliction of physical injury as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning, shaking or otherwise harming a child.

The statistics on physical child abuse are alarming. It is estimated hundreds of thousands of children are physically abused each year by a parent or close relative.  Thousands die.  For those who survive, the emotional trauma remains long after the external bruises have healed.

Children who have been abused may display:

        -a poor self image
        -sexual acting-out
        -inability to trust or love others
        -aggressive, disruptive, and sometimes illegal behavior
        -anger and rage
        -self-destructive behavior
        -self-injury
        -suicidal thoughts
        -passive or withdrawn behavior
        -anxiety and fears
        -school problems or failure
        -feelings of sadness or other symptoms of depression
        -flashbacks, nightmares
        -drug abuse
        -alcohol abuse

Often the severe emotional damage to abused children does not surface until adolescence or later when many abused children become abusing parents.  An adult who was abused as a child often has trouble establishing intimate personal relationships. These men and women may have trouble with physical closeness, touching, intimacy, and trust as adults.  They are also at higher risk for anxiety, depression, substance abuse, medical illness, and problems at school or work.
 

Child Neglect is characterized by failure to provide for the child’s basic needs. Neglect can be physical, educational, or emotional.

Physical neglect includes refusal of or delay in seeking health care, abandonment, expulsion from the home or refusal to allow a runaway to return home, and inadequate supervision.

Educational neglect includes the allowance of chronic truancy, failure to enroll a child of mandatory school age in school, and failure to attend to a special educational need.

Emotional neglect includes such actions as marked inattention to the child’s needs for affection, refusal of or failure to provide needed psychological care, spouse abuse in the child’s presence, and permission of drug or alcohol use by the child. The assessment of child neglect requires consideration of cultural values and standards of care as well as recognition that the failure to provide the necessities of life may be related to poverty.
 
 

Child Sexual Abuse has been reported up to 80,000 times a year, but the number of unreported instances is far greater, because the children are afraid to tell anyone what has happened, and the legal procedure for validating an episode is difficult.

Sexual abuse includes fondling a child’s genitals, intercourse, incest, rape, sodomy, exhibitionism, and commercial exploitation through prostitution or the production of pornographic materials. Many experts believe that sexual abuse is the most under-reported form of child maltreatment because of the secrecy or "conspiracy of silence" that so often characterizes these cases.

Child sexual abuse can take place within the family, by a parent, step-parent, sibling or other relative; or outside the home, for example, by a friend, neighbor, child care person, teacher, or stranger.  When sexual abuse has occurred, a child can develop a variety of distressing feelings, thoughts and behaviors.

No child is psychologically prepared to cope with repeated sexual stimulation.  Even a two- or three-year-old, who cannot know the sexual activity is "wrong," will develop problems resulting from the inability to cope with the over-stimulation and emotional deceit.

The child of five or older who knows and cares for the abuser becomes trapped between affection or loyalty for the person, and the sense that the sexual activities are terribly wrong.  If the child tries to break away from the sexual relationship, the abuser may threaten the child with violence or loss of love.  When sexual abuse occurs within the family, the child may fear the anger, jealousy or shame of other family members, or be afraid the family will break up if the secret is told.

A child who is the victim of prolonged sexual abuse usually develops low self-esteem, a feeling of worthlessness and an abnormal or distorted view of sex. The child may become withdrawn and mistrustful of adults, and can become suicidal.  Personality disorders, such as Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder), have been linked to sexual abuse.

Some children who have been sexually abused have difficulty relating to others except on sexual terms. Some sexually abused children become child abusers or prostitutes, or have other serious problems when they reach adulthood.

Often there are no obvious physical signs of child sexual abuse. Some signs can only be detected on physical exam by a physician.

Sexually abused children may develop the following:

        -unusual interest in or avoidance of all things of a sexual nature
        -sleep problems or nightmares
        -depression or withdrawal from friends or family
        -seductiveness
        -statements that their bodies are dirty or damaged, or fear that there is something wrong with them in the genital area
        -eating disorders
        -self-injury
        -refusal to go to school
        -delinquency
        -conduct problems
        -secretiveness
        -running away
        -aspects of sexual molestation in drawings, games, fantasies
        -unusual aggressiveness
        -suicidal behavior
 

Emotional Abuse (psychological/verbal abuse/mental injury) includes acts or omissions by the parents or other caregivers that have caused, or could cause, serious behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or mental disorders.  In some cases of emotional abuse, the acts of parents or other caregivers alone, without any harm evident in the child’s behavior or condition, are sufficient to warrant child protective services (CPS) intervention.  For example, the parents/caregivers may use extreme or bizarre forms of punishment, such as confinement of a child in a dark closet.  Less severe acts, such as habitual scape-goating, belittling, or rejecting treatment, are often difficult to prove and, therefore, CPS may not be able to intervene without evidence of harm to the child.

Although any of the forms of child maltreatment may be found separately, they often occur in combination.  Emotional abuse is almost always present when other forms are identified.
 
 
 

The preceding was borrowed in it's intirety from:  Focus Child Services
According to that site the information was provided by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information.