latency period

noun

1. Psychoanalysis. the stage of personality development, extending from about four or five years of age to the beginning of puberty, during which sexual urges appear to lie dormant.
2. Pathology. latent period(def 1).

noun

1. psychoanal a period according to Freud, from the age of about five to puberty, when sexual interest is diminished

According to psychoanalysis, the period in a child’s development, from about age four to about age twelve, during which sexual drives are sublimated (see sublimation). Psychoanalytic theory holds that all other stages of a child’s development (the anal stage, the oral stage, the genital stage or the Oedipus complex stage, and puberty) are dominated by the gratification of primarily sexual drives. During the latency period, children generally identify with the parent of the same sex and play with other children of the same sex.