The purpose of this study was to analyze the evolution of somatotype during growth. Material and methods. We examined 105 participants of the study: 42 boys and 63 girls aged from 6 to 12 years old, located in primary school (urban group) Tahar Jelloul city housing 348 Mostaganem to the west of Algeria. To fulfill the goal to find special sex difference in this relationship, males and females were studied separately. Having analyzed the results we found that the dominant model for both females and males of all ages was thin muscular which evidenced for the control of muscle mass at this age. We noted that the fine component confined between 02 and 04 between sexes, indicating that there was no difference in this component, where the differences sex did not affect until the age of 13. Results and discussion. The theoretical and practical study showed that there was no difference between male and female in all morphology characteristics, such as thin muscular style which was dominant in this study. The movements of boys are characterized as arduous and violent, such as climbing and running. Girls' movements are less violent than boys’ movements. It can explain the slight difference in the proportion of lipid mass and control of muscle mass and bone in both sexes. There was no difference between males and females in the proportion of fat or lipid mass and this was due to the lack of sexual differences between them. An important characteristic of this stage is the child's ability to endure weakness and feel tired for less effort, especially physical fatigue due to the lack of growth of the heart and lungs in relation to the growth of body size. At this stage muscular compatibility begins to improve. There is nothing to prevent the child from giving some difficult movements, which require compatibility between muscles and nerves, and this helps us to improve the muscular compatibility. The child’s physical growth remains relatively slow. Overexertion affects the growth processes in this age and usually growth at this stage is characterized as a slow process. Children at this stage like sport exercises practiced by adults very much. It is acceptable to take a father or a mother with them for some activities but with the condition that they match their level of maturity with no over-performance. Conclusions. The tendency of the child at this stage to compete exercises together with adults should be used. That is why we recommend our children to practice sports activities in the form of competitions or games, chasing or wrestling.
Keywords: somatotype, schoolchildren, measurements, growth, anthropometry
Full text: PDF (Eng) 439K