Assessment of biological maturation
Uses and applications in schools
Abstract
The indicators for the assessment of biological maturation are widely used in various fields. Provide relevant information for determining the rate or time of individual maturation. The use and application varies between techniques, however, all have a common goal, the classification of children and adolescents in maturation stages. In this sense, the objective of this review was to describe indicators of biological maturation and investigate the possible uses and applications within the school. We conclude that a) most studies agree that specify skeletal maturity or bone age is the most useful indicator, although predicting the peak growth rate given by Mirwald et al. (2002) is an indicator for assessing school populations transversely, and b) the assessment of maturation, regardless of the methodology can be applied in the clinic, school, sports and quality of life as a means of classifying groups working to unify children and adolescents in circunstances competition and non-sports.
