Amna Arfin-Hyder

Speech and Language Therapist

While I grew up in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, I frequently visited family in London and I always knew I wanted to live here at some point in my life.

Having an audiologist in the family, made me aware of the dearth of SLT services in Pakistan as she often spoke about children who had undergone a cochlear implant surgery but did not have access to adequate speech and language therapy services to develop their communication skills. This sparked a fascination with communication, causes of communication breakdowns and its adverse effects on the social/psychological well-being of an individual. My desire to help people (re)gain the ability to communicate led me to pursue an undergraduate degree in speech and language therapy (SLT) at the University College London (UCL).

My foundational clinical experience began during my undergraduate studies at UCL. Here, in the UK, I worked with paediatric and adult caseloads in various settings including acute care, a mental health in-patient ward, a hearing impairment unit of a mainstream school and a children’s development centre.

After completing my studies, I joined the pioneering SLT program of a hospital in Pakistan for 3 years.  I was clinically involved in evaluation and treatment of speech and language disorders such as articulation/phonological, language, fluency, voice, motor speech and pervasive developmental disorders. I was also a faculty member teaching students on what was the first undergraduate programme in SLT in Pakistan.

When my husband and I decided to live in London after getting married, I took the opportunity to complete an MSc in Speech, Language and Communication needs in Schools: Advanced Practice at City University / the Institute of Education (IoE) to enable my passion of promoting and further developing inclusive education in schools.

Outside work I try to explore as much of the unique multicultural experiences London offers all in one place, whether it’s food, theatre or exercise/yoga. I also spend as much time as I can with my baby daughter (and yes I try out all my SLT skills on her!).