Reply to Low score on the Beery-Butanka VMI test

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Reply to "Low score on the Beery-Butanka VMI test - what does it mean?"

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[quote=Anonymous]Background first - my 7yo first grader son had ADHD and is one diagnostic criteria short of an ODD diagnosis.  He's had an IEP since kindergarten, predicated on the ADHD, but giving services mostly related to his absolute unwillingness to write, and the panic attacks that come when he's made to write.

His ADHD was diagnosed as part of the NIH young-child ADHD study, and he had the full round of testing at school when he had the IEP first done about 18 months ago.  He refused to participate in most of the testing done by the school and NIH the first time, (that ODD behavior coming through) and both the school psychologist and the NIH person told us that the IQ tests and basically every test other than things that diagnose ADHD were suspect, because of his refusal to really participate.

Fast forward to last month, we were at NIH for our annual visit, and mentioned how much better he's doing now that he's on meds, and wasn't it funny how he refused to participate in all the tests the first time?  And they offered to do the tests again - caveated that they are given by grad students trained in administering these, but not psychologists, and that these are shortened forms of the tests.

We got the results on Saturday.  His IQ scores came back very high - 99.9th percentile; his scores on Woodcock-Johnson stuff were all 98-99th percentile except for spelling, which was 64th; but on the Beery Visual Motor Integration test he came back with a 10th percentile.

What does that mean?  A few things I saw suggested low muscle tone in his hands, I dn't think that's it.  Last year a classroom parent who happened to be an OT evaluated all the kids whose parents gave permission for things like pencil grip etc and he showed no issues.

One thing I saw mentioned dysgraphia.  Which, maybe?  My other child has pretty severe dyslexia, so if they are related and travel in families, maybe?  And maybe that also would explain the spelling, which is average, but theoretically should be better than average given his other test scores.  More than anything, I'm wondering if somehow there's something here that explains why he hates to write so much.  It's sheer torture to get him to write even the smallest thing.  We attributed it to his perfectionism, but maybe there's something more here?

And maybe he just didn't feel like doing the test at NIH, or an inexperienced tester didn't know what they were seeing.  I don't know, and we're going to send the report to school and see if they have any thoughts.  But has anyone BTDT or have any suggestions or ideas for us?[/quote]

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