Question:
What is the difference between peak growth spurt and growth spurt? Do they mean the same thing?
Answer:
A growth spurt is when you grow faster than a typical childhood growth of 1 to 2 inches per year. People have several growth spurts during childhood. The first big one is before you are 1 year old. On average, people grow about 10 inches during that first year. After that, you have several small, short-growth spurts. During stage 3 you have your growth spurt(s). Like a car accelerating, your rate of growth ramps up, hits its fast rate, and then starts to drop off. The fastest rate is called your peak growth spurt.
Since growth can start and stop during stage 3, it is usually challenging to say when you are growing the fastest until after the fact.
Typically growth is measured every 6 months or every year. Measuring for shorter periods causes difficulties because the amount of change may not be easily detected every month but is clearly there every 6 months.