Last updated on August 4, 2020
Question:
I have several questions: How will you know when you are getting tall? When is the last age you will stop growing? When do you notice that your voice is getting deeper?
Answer:
From the time you are born, you have always been growing. The fastest growth was before you were three. But all during childhood, the typical child puts on two to three inches a year. However, there is a point after puberty when you grow much faster than you did. The rate can double to four to six inches per year or go even higher. This is called your growth spurt. For boys, this almost always happens during stage 3 of development. You will notice because you will find that the clothes you are wearing are rapidly getting too small. Your parents may buy you new shoes or a new pair of pants and within a month they are too small.
There is not a fixed age when a boy stops growing. Almost everyone will be done by their early twenties, but for many boys, it happens much sooner. Rather than using age, doctors use stages of development. Stage 1 is your childhood time. Stage 5 is when you reached your full adult size. There are numerous indicators that point to which stage you are currently in. You can use the Tanner Stage Calculator for Boys to determine your stage. The links at the bottom of that calculator give facts about what happens in each stage.
Prior to your voice getting deeper, you begin to squeak at odd and unexpected times. The squeaks are due to your vocal cords quickly becoming longer and your brain not being able to keep the proper tension on the chords when it is distracted. Eventually, your brain learns the new length and your voice takes on a deeper pitch. The squeaking typically starts in stage 3 with your growth spurt and settles into a deeper tone in stage 4.