Question:
Hi,
I’m at the beginning of stage 4. I’m 5’11”. I never grew more than 2-2.5 inches annually. Is that normal? Does that mean I will grow more at stage 4 than the others?
Answer:
Not everyone experiences a dramatic spurt in growth during stage 3. For some the growth is a bit more than in childhood, which typically is 1-2 inches a year. Often those who have less dramatic growth end up staying in stage 3 longer than the typical two years.
Having said all of that, let’s assume you are 16 years old. You said you are currently 70 inches tall. I’ll assume you were 20 inches long when you were born. Therefore, over your life, you grew an average of 3 1/4 inches per year. This leads me to conclude that you probably had a growth spurt but you didn’t notice it because it came earlier than you were expecting.