Harmonious physical development is very important for the baby, because if he lags behind his peers on a number of parameters, he will not be able to acquire new skills in a timely manner, and his academic performance at school will leave much to be desired. In this article, we will tell you what methods are used to evaluate the physical development of children and adolescents, and what are the main features of this study.
Evaluation of physical development by centile tables
In most cases, doctors assess the development of the baby and his biometric indicators on the centile tables, compiled on the basis of studies of a certain number of children at one or another age. There are several such tables, with the help of each of which you can estimate how much the height, weight, and also the circumference of the chest and head of the crumbs correspond to normal indices.
In this case, the norm is understood as the average value characteristic of most children at this age. Since boys and girls, especially in early childhood, differ significantly in terms of physical development parameters, the centile tables will also be different for each gender.
Having measured the corresponding biometric parameters of the child, the doctor should substitute the values obtained in a table corresponding to his gender and determine how much they differ from the normal values. About half of the children "fall" into the middle column, or "corridor", from 25 to 75%. Indicators of other children are distributed on other columns.
The growth of the child in this case is determined by the following tables:
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Body weight according to others:
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The circumference of the child's head is inserted into one of the following tables:
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Finally, the measured circumference of the breast is used for evaluation using the following centile tables:
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The deviation from the norm for the study of one parameter has no clinical significance. In order to assess the physical development of crumbs, it is necessary to determine which "corridor" of the centile tables all its characteristics fall into. If, at the same time, all indicators remain within the same "corridor", they conclude that the child develops in harmony. If the data is significantly different, the baby is referred for an additional examination. At the same time, there are no diagnoses on centile tables.
Assessment of physical development by regression scales
This method also allows you to assess whether the child is developing harmoniously, and if necessary, to conduct an additional examination. In this case, biometric indicators are considered not in isolation, but in aggregate. At the same time, the growth of crumbs is taken as the main independent value.
All other indicators, namely the weight and circumference of the chest and head, are considered exclusively in conjunction with growth. That is, if the child develops harmoniously, then with increasing body length, all other biometric indicators should also increase. In this case, all values must correspond to each other or slightly differ within one regression scale. Graphically, this dependence looks like this:
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