Audiovisual speech consists of overlapping and invariant patterns of dynamic acoustic and optic articulatory information. Research has shown that infants can perceive a variety of basic auditory-visual (A-V) relations but no studies have investigated whether and when infants begin to perceive higher order A-V relations inherent in speech. Here, we…

Outlines two competing hypotheses concerning the nature of inter-modal sensory development. Research on auditory-visual coordination in young human infants is reviewed. It is concluded that the data support the notion of ontogenetic development being a process of intergration between sensory systems that are initially relatively independent.…