diff --git a/‎src/standard/events.html‎
Lines changed: 14 additions & 2 deletions b/‎src/standard/events.html‎
Lines changed: 14 additions & 2 deletions
@@ -55,9 +55,21 @@
      */
     listeners: {},
 
+    // TODO(sorvell): need to deprecate listening for a.b.
+    // In the interim, we need to keep a map of listeners by node name
+    // to avoid these string searches at instance time.
     _listenListeners: function(listeners) {
-      for (var eventName in listeners) {
-        this.listen(this, eventName, listeners[eventName]);
+      var node, name, eventName;
+      for (eventName in listeners) {
+        if (eventName.indexOf('.') < 0) {
+          node = this;
+          name = eventName;
+        } else {
+          name = eventName.split('.');
+          node = this.$[name[0]];
+          name = name[1];
+        }
+        this.listen(node, name, listeners[eventName]);
       }
     },