Vera Bernard-Opitz completed her Ph.D. at the University of Göttingen (with Prof. E.Duhm) in conjunction with the University of California Santa Barbara (Prof. Koegel, Prof. C. Prutting). After a four-year internship as Parent Trainer and Assistant Director at the Los Ninos Center San Diego (Dr. E.T. McInnis) she returned to Germany and became the Head of the Psychological Services at a rehabilitation center, the Johannes Anstalten Mosbach. For seven years she supervised seven psychologists, teachers and trainers in the Communication Training Center serving children with autism, developmental disorders and severe behavior problems.

Upon her move to Singapore in 1988 she worked as Associate Professor at the Department of Social Work and Psychology of the National University of Singapore. She initiated the Behavior Intervention Center for Children (BICC) at the Department, where children with autism, parents, teachers and students participated in assessments, interventions and applied research. Parallel to this she founded the STEP Program, a one-to-one structured therapy program. She supervised two school sites for about 100 children with autism for 10 years.

For more than 25 years Vera Bernard-Opitz developed a curriculum, which matches specific training methods to the needs of the children. This so-called STEP Program (Structured Teaching and Experience-based Program) has recently been published as a training manual (Kinder mit Autismus Spektrum Störungen, Kohlhammer Verlag) and is now in print in English (Pro Ed Publishing).

Vera Bernard-Opitz has contributed numerous research articles on her area of expertise to professional journals in the USA, Germany and Singapore. These include Parent-Training, Pragmatics, Computer-Assisted Instruction and Intensive Early Intervention. She has co-authored a book on Hand-signs and alternative communication for autistic children.

In 1992 Vera Bernard-Opitz founded the Autism News Singapore, which she edited with a great team of volunteers for ten years. Upon her move to California she turned this newsletter into the Autism News Orange County & the Rest of the World.

She now works as a book author, editor and behavioral consultant. She gives workshops and trains parents as well as staff in the US, Singapore, India and Germany. Video Consultation has recently been developed as an efficient hands-on training to parents and professionals from autism centers and special schools in different countries.