The hypothesis that severely autistic children exhibit multiple-orienting in response to most of the sounds around them is examined. The hypothesis was based on the observation of detectable kinesic perturbations and excessive eye gaze shifts following sound onsets in contrast to normal controls. All subjects were sound filmed and the films micro-analyzed. Autistic children appear to have out-of-phase processing between the hemispheres, resulting in asynchronous behavior and asynchronous auditory reception: a multiple response to sound. Studies were conducted indicating that judges can highly reliably analyze kinesic events, eye gaze shifts, and sound onset points. Eye gaze changes following sound onsets in 7 autistic children were compared with shifts in 7 normal controls (controlled for age and sex). All the autistic children exhibited significantly more eye gaze changes than the normal controls. Within the autistic subjects there were also significantly more eye gaze changes following sound onsets than in comparable periods of silence. Dyslexic children also exhibit asynchrony and a post sound-stimulus kinesic perturbation, but not multiple orienting. There are marked similarities in the response to sound of dyslexic and autistic children. This research is a new approach to the study of dysfunctional children.