THE PHYSICAL CHANGES
March 11th, 2009By the end of the first year of life a child’s birth weight has tripled and by the end of the second it has quadrupled. After this, both height and weight increases settle down, in both sexes, to a steady annual gain of about 5 to 7 cm (2 to 2J in) a year in height and 2.25 to 2-75 kg (5 to 6 lb) increase in weight.
This steady progress is interrupted by a sudden pre-puberty spurt of height and weight. The spurt in height begins at about 10 or 11 years of age in girls and about 12 to 13 years in boys, and it lasts about two years in both sexes. During the spurt girls add about 16 cm (6 in) to their height and boys add about 20 cm (8 in), mostly because of the growth in the length of the trunk. The spurt in weight lags behind that in height in both sexes and starts later in boys.
In both sexes, the size of the hands and feet increases first, then the forearms and calf; this is followed by the chest and hips, and then, in boys particularly, by the shoulders. The child is becoming an adolescent! Last of all, the trunk lengthens and the chest
deepens. In girls, the chest growth is masked, to some extent, by the development of the breasts. During this period of unequal growth, the child is relatively ungainly and often embarrassed by his or her appearance.
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