A child’s reactions to torture depend on age, developmental stage and cognitive skills. The younger the child, the more his/her experience and understanding of the traumatic event is influenced by the immediate reactions and attitudes of caregivers following the event. For children under the age of three who have experienced or witnessed torture, the protective and reassuring role of their caregivers is crucial. Very young children’s reactions to traumatic experiences typically involve hyperarousal, such as restlessness, sleep disturbance, irritability, heightened startle reactions and avoidance. Children over three often tend to withdraw and refuse to speak directly about traumatic experiences. The ability for verbal expression increases during development. A marked increase occurs around the concrete operational stage (8-9 years old), when children develop the ability to provide a reliable chronology of events. During this stage, concrete operations and temporal and spatial capacities develop. These new skills are still fragile and it is usually not until the beginning of the formal operational stage (12 years old) that children are consistently able to construct a coherent narrative. Adolescence is a turbulent developmental period. The effects of torture can vary widely. Torture experiences may cause profound personality changes in adolescents, resulting in antisocial behaviour. Alternatively, the effects of torture on adolescents may be similar to those seen in younger children.