Puberty

What It Means

Puberty is the stretch of years when a child's body develops into an adult's body, driven by hormones. Cleveland Clinic says it usually happens between ages 8 and 13 in girls and 9 and 14 in boys, and doctors track its progress on the five Tanner stages. Every child moves through the stages at their own pace, so friends of the same age can be far apart.

How Parents Say It

• "He's hitting puberty, the voice is cracking."
• "She's only nine and she's already developing."
• "We need to have the puberty talk before summer camp."

The Breakdown

Puberty by age, per Cleveland Clinic

The five Tanner stages. Doctors rate development on a scale of 1 to 5. Stage 2 is the first visible change, breast development in girls and genital development in boys, and it's the stage doctors use to judge whether puberty started early or late.

The growth spurtGrowth spurtA short stretch when a child grows faster than usual in height and weight, common in the first year and again around puberty. See more. Height shoots up during puberty. The published growth spurt page quotes Cleveland Clinic's ranges: roughly 9 to 15 for girls and 12 to 17 for boys.

When to talk to the doctor. Call your child's doctor if signs of puberty appear before 8 in a girl or 9 in a boy. Early puberty has a medical name, precocious puberty, and NICHD covers it as its own health topic. Call as well if a girl shows few or no signs by 13 or a boy by 14. Cleveland Clinic says the doctor will take a history, do an exam and may order blood tests for hormones and thyroid function. The most common kind of late puberty, called constitutional delay, is more common in boys and often inherited, for example when the mother's periods started after 14 or the father was a late bloomer, according to Cleveland Clinic.

Good to Know

Early or late timing is a question for the doctor rather than something to wait out or worry over alone. HealthyChildren.org, the American Academy of Pediatrics' site for parents, has a page on delayed puberty in girls that explains what the doctor looks for. Questions about medicines that pause puberty belong with your child's doctor.

Related Terms and Categories

• Tween

  A child in the years just before becoming a teenager, roughly the late elementary and middle school years. Another word for preteen.

• Growth spurt

  A short stretch when a child grows faster than usual in height and weight, common in the first year and again around puberty.

• Teen brain

  The way the brain keeps developing through adolescence; NIMH says it finishes maturing in the mid-to-late 20s, with the prefrontal cortex among the last parts.

• Body positivity for kids

  Helping a child feel comfortable in and respectful of their own body, with family talk centered on health and what bodies can do rather than on weight.

• Self-esteem

  How a person feels about themselves and what they can do. In a child, healthy self-esteem shows as feeling liked, accepted and able to try again after a mistake.

• Consent for kids

  Teaching children that people ask before touching someone, that a "no" is respected, and that their own "yes" or "no" about their body counts.

Parenting and child development