Authors present a new tool: the baby bird tale, taken from Tales Test ( Royer, 1978 ), which can be used to diagnose separation anxiety disorder. They compared the responses of a control group of 120 children divided into three subgroups (4–6, 6–11, and 11–13 years of age), with the responses of a clinical group of 80 children suffering from separation anxiety disorder, matched for age, sex and parental socioeconomic status. Results show the discriminating value of the instrument and confirm the existence of an insecure attachment and of the inability to mentally elaborate separation anxiety among children from the clinical subgroup.