Short or Tall

Can You Calculate Your Child's Final Height?

Dr. John Alevizos, also known as "the Growth Doctor," is a board-certified family practitioner, osteopathic doctor and author of The Growth Spurt: Calculating Your Child's Final Adult Height (Authorhouse, 2006). He shares some insight on how our children grow.

Parents, after reading The Growth Spurt, will reflect back on their school days and discern whether they were early, average age or late maturers. The timing of both boys' and girls' growth spurts depends on when Mom began with her menses.

Early maturers enjoy bigger stature, more red blood cells (for endurance), more mature thoughts (abstract thinking). Many early stars (once one understands the very orderly growth process) will not even make their high school teams. Late maturers at times have not even begun their growth while their classmates are near full adult stature and asserting themselves in every aspect of life. All of us have seen the disparity on most sports teams and school social settings beginning with the fifth grade.

As a basketball league board member, I have seen children and their entire families' dreams shattered when, after the seventh grade, the rest of the players passed them up in stature and ability.

Want to see more?

• Skeletal Dysplasia: Detecting, Treating and Understanding Abnormal Bone Growth
• Put Me In, Coach: Is Your Preschooler Ready for Organized Sports?
• At a Slower Pace: Developmental Delay or Developing Personality?
• Talk about it!