The effects of socioeconomic status on working memory in childhood are partially mediated by intersensory processing of audiovisual events in infancy.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a well-established predictor of individual differences in childhood language and cognitive functioning, including executive functions such as working memory. In infancy, intersensory processing-selectively attending to properties of events that are redundantly specified across the senses at the expense of non-redundant, irrelevant properties-also predicts language development. Our recent research demonstrates that individual differences in intersensory processing in infancy predict a variety of language outcomes in childhood, even after controlling for SES.

Infant distractibility from social events mediates the relation between maternal responsiveness and infant language outcomes.

Research demonstrates that contingent and appropriate maternal responsiveness to infant requests and bids for attention leads to better language outcomes. Research also indicates that infants who are less distracted by irrelevant competing stimulation and attend efficiently to audiovisual social events (e.g.