So do you want to know how tall your son or daughter will be when they grow up and if they’ll be able to play professional basketball? Well now a team of Canadian researchers believe they can tell you. Take a look.
Medpage today: How tall will your child be? It’s a question that has vexed parents for centuries.
Now, say Canadian researchers, a few body measurements and a simple calculation can produce an answer that’s accurate to within two inches for boys and 2.5 inches for girls.
“People have always wanted to know how tall their children are going to be,” said Adam Baxter-Jones, Ph.D., a kinesiologist at the University of Saskatchewan here. While several current methods exist, they are invasive, expensive, or relatively imprecise, he said.
For kids between the ages of eight and 16, three measurements — standing height, sitting height, and weight — can be used to estimate how long before the growth spurt, Dr. Baxter-Jones said. Since it’s known that at the growth spurt, a child will have attained 92% of his or her adult height, it’s then possible to calculate the final height.
The method takes into account the biological age of the child, designating him or her as early-, average-, or late-maturing, depending on when the growth spurt is expected.
It’s accurate to within 2.1 inches 95% of the time in boys and to within 2.68 inches 95% of the time in girls, the researchers reported.
I saw this earlier today, Loyd. With better than a five inch margin of error (+/- 2.68 inches), I’d bet I could make an equally accurate guess for both of my daughters. I’ll just guess a nice, middle-of-the-road 5 feet, 5 inches and I’m still right if they’re five-two or five-seven.
This would be much, much cooler if it was accurate within half an inch. For a future baller, there’s a world of difference between five-ten and six feet.