This study investigated attention and performance on simple tasks as well as classroom attention of seriously disturbed, communication-impaired, autistic-type children under conditions of reduced auditory input (using ear protectors) and under conditions of normal auditory input (using a placebo device). Under ear protector conditions, there was a significant increase in the amount of attention given to most of the tasks and there was significant improvement in performance on two of five tasks. In addition, teacher ratings indicated a significant improvement in classroom attention under ear protector conditions. It was concluded that a significant number of autistic-type children do improve in classroom attention and show some gains in attention and performance on certain tasks under conditions of reduced auditory input. (Author)