European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 15, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Growth rates the tall and Short of it by Susan okie Washington Post considering the complicated interaction of genes hormones nutrition and metabolism that is needed to make a body grow normally it is remarkable that height vanes As Little As it does said or. Gordon 8 Culler of the National Institute of child health and human development Niche in Washington. The Normal height Range Lor american men. Delmed statistically by measuring Large numbers of adults is Between 5 Leel 5 and 6 Leet 2. For women it is Between 5 loot 1 and 5 Leel 9 that 90 percent of the adult population alls within those narrow boundaries is a tribute to the body s Lino tuning Normal values Lor height and growth Rale have also been determined Tor children of different Ages. Most children grow about two inches a year before puberty growth accelerates to Lour inches a year during the pubertal growth spurt when a child ails to grow As expected a doctor must consider Many possible explanations deficiencies in growth hormone or thyroid hormone or excessive amounts of the hormone cortisol can cause growth failure poor nutrition or diseases that interfere with the digestive system s absorption of nutrients can make Normal i owl impossible. Any serious illness such As kidney failure uncontrolled diabetes or congenital heart disease can retard growth. Since height is determined by the growth of cartilage plates at the ends of the Bones Bone and cartilage disorders can also retard growth. Short stature is a common finding in certain chromosome abnormalities. Doctors have Long recognized that psychological factors can also profoundly influence growth. The pituitary gland a gland at the base of the brain that secretes growth hormone is controlled by a brain Structure called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus. In turn receives messages irom higher brain centers Hal regulate consciousness and mood because of the relationship Between brain function and hormone Levels failure to grow is sometimes the Only symptom of depression in a child said or Susan r Rose of the Niche she recalled one teen age patient she had treated after two years of trying to figure Oul Why his growth was poor he acknowledged that his lather had Boon beating his Mother she said. He was always in the Middle trying to protect  most of the time doctors cannot Imd a medical or psychological explanation Lor a child s shortness Culler said for about 90 percent of the people who come in Here we Don l end up Wilh a diagnosis he sad. Well say genetic Short Lalure meaning the child is Short because his parents Are Short but we Don t know which genes Are involved and How they work " Cutler said growth hormone is believed to stimulate cartilage cells located in the Bones growth plates to produce a substance called insulin like Grov the Factor 1, which then makes the cells Divide thyroid hormone controls the body s metabolic rate and also affects growth in Little understood ways at puberty the Sharp increase in sex hormone Levels somehow acts on the growth plates to trigger a growth  later the same sex hormones induce changes in the plates that make further growth impossible although tall parents tend to have tall children any couple can produce so Many chromosomal combinations Hal the Range in their children s height can be As Broad As that seen in the general population. Culler said there is tremendous ability to generate. Irom a single pair of parents a genetically diverse set of  he said. Ii you look at a Large family you can see Hal " scoring preschoolers by Gina Kolata new York times o the Surprise of Many psychologists in the United slates tests on infants As Young As 6 months arc predicting their scores on intelligence tests years later when they Start school. While researchers continue to study and expand on the infant tests doctors and clinical psychologists at 30 or More hospitals and clinics in the United states Are already using the tests to identify babies who Are Al special risk of doing poorly in school. Psychologists Hope Hal they can give these children extra help to enhance their academic skills before they reach school age. And now the Developer of the first of these tests. Or. Joseph Fagan. A psychologist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland has taken the idea of infant testing a step further. Fagan recently reported that he can also identify babies Likely to to above average in intelligence. A baby s performance on visual memory tests can be an indicator Olpe school in level. A baby looks at Flash cards of images As testers m intelligence Levels by measuring babies reactions t one use of this finding he said might be to test babies from poor families to identify those who Are particularly intelligent and could Benefit from special enrichment programs giving them the sort of advantages Hal children of upper income parents Are More Likely to have. Although in the Best possible world All children should have these advantages. Fagan said in reality there Are limited resources asked whether it was fair to give special attention to children who were predicted to be especially intelligent Fagan replied How about lolling them waste away for live or six years we have gilled children who Don t reach their potential because socioeconomic condition just swamp  Fagan s suggestion Hal smart As Well As less intelligent children could be identified is making some of his colleagues uncomfortable in part because it pushes Basic psychological research into the realm of social policy and also because it raises serious questions about a movement to predict intelligence. The very idea of predicting intelligence is already somewhat controversial. While intelligence tests administered to schoolchildren have proved accurate in predicting academic performance Many psychologists stress iha1 there is More to intelligence than Success in school. Moreover several studies have shown that tests tha try to predict intelligence can have a self fulfilling effect the simple expectation that a child will do Well or poorly will Lead parents and teachers to treat the child in ways that May make the prediction come True. We Are going too far in trying to predict intelligence Early in  said Ina Uzgiris a psychologist at Clark University in Worcester. Mass of number of us would say that in is a Hodgepodge of approximations thai seem to correlate Wilh schoolwork but there certainly is More to doing Well in Lile than doing Well in  intelligence is a Tunny  said Norman Krasnegor. Who is chief of the human learning and behaviour Branch of the National los Titus