THERE is general agreement that children with Down's syndrome are shorter in stature throughout the growing years than healthy children of equivalent chronological ages. It is held by some1,2 that the magnitude of the retardation becomes exaggerated in the circumpubertal years due to early closure of the epiphyses of the long bones. Pozsonyi et al3 reported that the termination of skeletal growth occurred at approximately 15 years of age, three years earlier than the expected age. However, the observations of the latter investigators are based on cross-sectional data from a small sample of children, only 15 cases being beyond 8 years of age. On the other hand, Roche4 found that there were periods during the later growing years when the rate of growth in stature of some of these children exceeded that of normal children. For example, adolescent growth spurts occurred in 36 of 41 cases in