Erikson agreed with Freud that school age is a period of psychosexual latency. Sexual latency is important because it allows children to divert their energies to learning the technology of their culture and the strategies of then social interactions. As children work and play to acquhe these essentials, they begin to form a picture of themselves as competent or incompetent. These self images are the origin of ego identity—that feeling of "I" or "me-ness" that evolves more fully during adolescence. Was this article helpful?