My son has recently undergone puberty but his growth has suddenly stopped. He has both facial and body acne, hair on his upper lip, and a consistent deep voice. He is of Asian descent. What stage do you think he is at, based on those few details? I’m too embarrassed to ask for more information.<\/p>\n\t
Puberty is defined as the time when the male or female hormones rise causing the changes of a child into an adult. Doctor Tanner, many years ago, developed a scale to assess the progress of a child through development. Stage 1 is childhood, before puberty. Stage 2 is the initial set of changes. Stage 3 is the rapid growth phase. Stage 4 is when growth slows back down. And Stage 5 is when growth comes to a stop, though some development still continues for several more years.<\/p>\n
Your description is of a male in stage 4 of development or perhaps beyond. Upper lip hair usually appears in stage 3. Acne typically is a problem in stage 4, though it can continue beyond it. The change in voice comes during stage 4. Outside of this, I can’t tell you much more from the description.<\/p>\n
Stages 2, 3, and 4 in males last about two years for each stage, so though you’ve only recently noticed he is changing, the changes have actually been taking place for a number of years.<\/p>\n
There is a self-assessment questionnaire that your son can take to estimate what stage he is in. It is called the Tanner Development Stage Calculator for Boys<\/a>. If he has questions about growth and growing up, I will be happy to address them directly with him. There is a book and website dedicated to this topic called Growing Up in the Lord: A Study for Teenage Boys<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: My son has recently undergone puberty but his growth has suddenly stopped. He has both facial and body acne, hair on his upper lip, and a consistent deep voice. He is of Asian descent. What stage do you think he is at, based on those few details? I’m too embarrassed to ask for more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1033,20,1028,1034],"tags":[665,29,1043,107,395],"class_list":["post-34749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adolescence","category-answer","category-parenting","category-teenager","tag-child-rearing","tag-parenting","tag-puberty","tag-raising-children","tag-teenagers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":44327,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-parents-get-sad-when-their-children-hit-puberty\/","url_meta":{"origin":34749,"position":0},"title":"Do parents get sad when their children hit puberty?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 7, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do parents get sad when their kids hit puberty? 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Answer: A child, prior to puberty, has no built-in concept of what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14025,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-is-a-child-old-enough-to-explain-concepts-like-rape-that-appear-in-a-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":34749,"position":4},"title":"When is a child old enough to explain concepts like rape that appear in a story?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a 10-year-old son who is being homeschooled. He is in a Medieval, Reformation, and Renaissance unit and will be reading a version of The Canterbury Tales that has been translated into modern English by Barbara Cohen. 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