This study investigated the classroom attention as well as performance on simple tasks of seriously disturbed, psychotic-type, verbally communicative children under conditions of reduced auditory input (using ear protectors) and under conditions of normal auditory input (using a placebo device). No significant difference was found in either task performance or classroom attention under the ear protector as compared with the placebo condition. However, the data did indicate that those subjects who appeared to improve in classroom attention under ear protector conditions were subjects who exhibited serious language disorders, and it was suggested that this finding might merit further consideration. (Author)