Accommodation is the ability to focus on objects at various distances.
Accommodation: This is the ability to focus on objects at various distances. Newborn infants can only focus out to about nine inches.
Hence, if dad is peering through the window at baby in the nursery right after delivery, (hopefully baby would have been able to stay with the mom, of course), the smile he may see would be more likely due to a state of intestinal gas rather than visual recognition.
Within days, however, the child's accommodation becomes fully functional--but not for everybody.
Some children even by school age have problems in switching focus. Although they can do it, it takes an inordinately long time to complete the process.
This near/far focusing difficulty creates problems in school when children try to copy information from the blackboard.