[2][3] In 1834, his parents sent him at eight years of age to Institutet för dövstumma och blinda, Manillaskolan ('the Institute for the deaf-mute and blind', 'the Manilla School') in Stockholm.

[5] Two years later, Malm returned home having studied a number of subjects, learning written Swedish to an "unusually" high level, and becoming the school's top student.

[9] In contrast to the oralism commonly used in deaf education at the time, his school focused primarily on sign language and written Swedish (see manualism).

Malm fought for more support and his efforts were noted by Johan Vilhelm Snellman in the Swedish-language newspaper Saima.

[6] The school eventually attracted influential patrons, including priest and poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg and bishop and pioneering educator of the deaf Carl Henrik Alopaeus, who initiated a fundraising campaign for its benefit.

[11][9][2][7] The Turku school for the deaf was noted in an 1868 report by the United States Secretary of the Interior, who remarked on the focus on instruction in sign language and written text, unusual at the time.

[1] Malm and his brother Gustaf Emil's philanthropic mindset led them to found a people's library in Turku.

Malm had an interest in photography and planned to open a photo studio in the 1860s, with which he would fund a number of social programs, including a bath house, sewing classes for poor women, and grants for Svenska fruntimmersskolan i Åbo, a girls' school.