zoey, have you seen the subtest scores on his Beery VMI? My severely dysgraphic ds (fine motor dysgraphia) scored in the 82nd percentile total score on the Beery VMI, but his subtest score split was huge - the fine motor score was only in the 12th percentile. I don't have the scores at hand at the moment for my dd who has vision challenges (but not dysgraphia), but she also had what looked like an "ok" total score on the Beery VMI, yet tanked the subtest that depended more on vision instead of fine motor. Just like with looking at averaged total scores on the WISC, it's really not easy to tell the full story simply by looking at the one total score on the Beery VMI.
I am also curious - what is the basis behind saying he "has no fine motor issues"? I'm not questioning that he doesn't, just curious what kind of testing was done to assess them. It does sound like he may have some form of dysgraphia (there are different causes for dysgraphia). Dysgraphia is due to a neurological disconnect, so even children like my ds who have fine-motor related dysgraphia are still often able to perform other types of fine motor skills either correctly or even very well. My ds, for instance, tested as average-above average-superior on his initial OT assessment for handwriting OT even though he had a diagnosis of fine-motor related dysgraphia - the OT assessment was not looking at the neurological disconnect that takes place during handwriting, it was looking at the physical skills needed to make handwriting successful *if* your brain can tell your fingers what to do. He is also *very* talented at drawing even though he, as a teen, can't always remember how to form letters. Drawing is a different neurologic and physical process - your pencil rarely leaves the paper and you're creating what you are drawing as you draw it rather than expecting your fingers/brain to rely on any type of automaticity.
What you've described of your ds' handwriting, combined with his low score on coding, would lead me to look for more insight into what's going on with his handwriting. Did the school perform his evaluation? Can you ask them to perform any additional tests? The tests that were useful in diagnosing our ds' dysgraphia were finger-tapping - the results of the finger tapping tests combined with the Beery VMI will give you a clue re is it a fine motor issue or a visual-perceptual issue. You can also ask the evaluator to time your ds' handwriting and compare it to grade level expected speeds.
It's also possible, of course, that your ds had a low score on coding simply because he was distracted or moved slowly and it's a timed test. OTOH, if you're consistently seeing issues with handwriting I would be less likely to discount the coding test result. Did your ds show the same pattern of score scatter on his previous WISC? If he did, that would also indicated there is something more going on than simply moving slow due to distraction etc. Do you feel confident he has ADHD or have you had questions about his diagnosis? What types of issues was he having when he was originally evaluated for ADHD?
Let us know how your meeting goes on Wednesday - I hope you're able to get the help you're looking for for your ds.
Best wishes,
polarbear
