How is adolescent idiopathic scoliosis diagnosed?

To diagnose adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, doctors do the following:

• Ask the child and parents whether there were any problems when the child was born or whether he or she had any problems growing.
• Look at the child's spine when it is in various positions. They look at how it bends and twists while the child moves around.
• Do an x-ray, which takes a picture of the bones in the spine. An x-ray will show any curve in the spine and also how big the curve is.