Last updated on August 21, 2020
Question:
I just turned 14 last month, but my body height is not growing. What should I do and when will my body height grow?
Answer:
Each person is unique in when they begin to grow. A person’s age is only a rough approximation as to when it happens. The start of puberty, when you first notice signs that you are beginning to change, can start as early as 9 or as late as 16 and you would still be considered “normal.” The average age for having your growth spurt is between 13 and 14 years of age, but obviously it more depends on when you start puberty than how old you are.
A Doctor Tanner, many years ago developed a system of classifying the progress people make in changing from a child’s body to an adult body. He divided it into five stages. The first stage is a child, the fifth stage is an adult, and three stages in between are adolescence. Stage two starts when signs of puberty can first be seen externally. Stage three is the rapid growth stage. Stage four is when growth slows down. For boys, each stage of adolescence lasts about two years — for some it is more, for others it is less.
Since I can’t see you, I can’t tell you which stage you have reached. However, I made a calculator that guesses the stages based on various signs that you report about yourself. If you would use The Tanner Stage Calculator for Boys and let me know what you get for results, I can then tell you more about what you can expect.