A nine-year-old boy who recently started communicating by pointing at a letterboard is raising awareness about what it feels to be trapped inside the body of a child with non-verbal autism.

For years, Beppe Caruana sat quietly in class or in the back of his parents’ car.

But when his mother, Olivia Galea Seychell, found a way to communicate with him, she soon realised that Beppe had absorbed every detail around him, mastering English and Maltese, mathematics and other subjects.

Beppe aspired to become a biomedical engineer. He too was concerned about the destruction of the environment around him.

He was also very much aware that some of his schoolmates were laughing at him and that most people thought he could not understand them. He often prayed to be like his friends.

And when the pandemic hit our shores, he too grew concerned about its impact. But he also hoped that the restrictions that the pandemic brought with it could help people understand how restricted those with autism feel.

If you asked him, he would tell you all about autism

Beppe was full of ideas, but he had not yet found a way to communicate them, so when he finally broke through that barrier, he expressed his wish to raise awareness about autism through a book. It transpired that he had learnt how to read and write in kindergarten, unbeknown to those around him, who were trying to teach him the alphabet.

He had it all planned out, and with the help of his mother, he wrote a book about a boy who sheds worldly shackles and floats up in space where he is not continuously stared at.

Beppe did this by pointing at letters on a board, forming words, and stringing them into sentences, the same way we conducted the interview. His mother wrote it all down, word by word, and once published, the book was distributed to students by the National Literacy Agency.

He would like to keep up his writing and his next book will feature the sea, which provides him “with a sense of liberty from that which impacts me in this world. In the sea I can swim freely, something I cannot do on the ground,” he says.

Beppe could eventually start typing his own books with the help of a communicative device donated by the Malta Trust Foundation’s E3 project, which looks like a tablet.

Beppe was aware that that most people thought he could not understand them.

Growing up with autism

If you asked him, he would tell you all about autism: it is a genetic mutation that stops his mind from communicating with his mouth to express himself.

Olivia recalls that as he was growing up, Beppe’s parents noticed that his verbal language was not picking up as they would have expected for his age.

They started speech and other kinds of therapy from when he was a toddler, but soon realised that he was not interested in the activities he was being presented with, such as flashcards.

As a psychologist and senior lecturer by profession, Olivia believed that even if he did not talk, it did not mean he would not be able to communicate.

When a friend introduced her to what is known as the ‘rapid prompting method’, she cautiously tried it out by showing him a sum and two possible answers. As she increased the possible options, Beppe pointed to the right answer every time.

She eventually moved to a system where Beppe points at letters to form words and sentences, finally breaking the communication barrier.

This milestone was a relief, however, Olivia admits there are times she feels overwhelmed and exhausted. How does she overcome these moments?

“Everyone needs to do some soul searching. In my case I had dealt with loss because of multiple miscarriages, so, when I had the loss of the dream of a son without a condition, I was psychologically more prepared.

“You need to find your way: assess the situation, pull up your socks and move on. You will go through shock, denial and anger, but you need to understand that if you don’t overcome all of this, you will not move forward.”

Beppe and 29 other children benefitted from individual electronic devices to support their learning, after the Malta Trust Foundation’s E3 project raised €84,283. Look up The Malta Trust Foundation on Facebook.