Patterns of eye–hand coordination in the first year of life.

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Abstract
The traditional reflex-to-voluntary behavior model of development is questioned and an alternative hypothesis is proposed that reflex functions are distinct from the ontogenetic antecedents of voluntary behavior. An overview of patterns of eye-hand coordination in the 1st yr of life suggests that reflexes and cortically controlled instrumental activity share a parallel course of development, with the latter increasing in frequency and importance as development proceeds. Evidence is drawn from 3 sources. Despite procedural problems in studying neonatal reaching there remains sufficient evidence that hand movements in infants under 8 wk of age are progressively coordinated with visual stimuli. Some new data are presented which show that up to at least 12 wk of age the left hand shows greater activity and orientation to visual stimuli than the right hand, which is contralateral to the dominance of neonatal reflexes. Several experiments are reviewed which studied the emergence of visually guided reaching and its development during the 2nd half of the 1st yr. The evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that this apparently new behavior, clearly distinct from reflexes, is in fact on a continuum with these earlier non-reflexive, instrumental behaviors.

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