Late Childhood extends from the age of 6 years to 12 years, beginning with the child’s entry into formal schooling and ending in the advent of puberty. This is the period of excellence and pseudo - maturity. New interests develop for the child and besides some maturity in sex; the child also develops certain amount of physical and mental growth. As regards sex, it remains dormant, but it emerges with great force at the end of this stage. This stage, is therefore, called ‘latency period’.

At both its beginning and end, late childhood is marked by conditions that profoundly affect a child’s personal and social adjustments. The beginning of late childhood is marked by the child’s entrance into first grade in school. For most of the young children, this is a major change in the pattern of their lives, even when they have had a year or more of experience in some pre-school institution. Entrance into first grade is a milestone in every child’s life; therefore it is responsible for many of the changes that take place in terms of attitudes, values and behaviour.

Although it is possible to mark off the beginning of late childhood fairly accurately, one cannot be so precise about the time when this period comes to an end because sexual maturity - the criterion used to divide childhood from adolescence - comes at varying ages. This is because there are marked variations in the ages at which boys and girls become sexually mature. As a result, some children have a longer - than - average late childhood, while for others it is shorter than the average.

Parents, educators and psychologists apply various names to the late childhood and these names reflect the important characteristics of the period. Parents’ name this period as – the troublesome age and quarrelsome age; educators call it as - elementary school age and critical period, and psychologists named the late childhood as - gang