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Article History

Received: 15 June 2025

Accepted: 8 April 2026

First Online: 23 April 2026

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: This study was approved by The PolyU Institutional Review Board (Approval Number: HSEARS20220213003; Date of approval: 21 February 2022). All procedures involving human participants were conducted in accordance with the guidelines and regulations of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki. The approved research involved behavioral investigation of speech perception in Cantonese-speaking children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Written informed consent was obtained from the legal guardians of all participating children prior to data collection.

: Written informed consent was obtained from the parents of all child participants between March and October 2023. Prior to the onset of the study, parents and participants were thoroughly informed about the study’s background, purpose, procedures, potential risks, and data usage through an information sheet. Parents were given the opportunity to ask questions to ensure they could make an informed and voluntary decision. After fully understanding the purpose of the study, they signed a consent form to indicate their agreement for their children to participate. To maintain confidentiality and anonymity, participants were assigned unique codes once they were enrolled in the study. Parents and participants were also informed of their right to withdraw from the study at any time without penalty. All informed consent documents are securely stored to protect the privacy of the child participants but can be made available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.