What about a child who speaks slowly? Would his fluency rate be different?

A question from a STEPS teacher: If a child has a slow speech pattern, should this really affect their fluency score? What if a 2nd grade child reads slowly, 45wpm, but can answer comprehension questions almost verbatim from the story. Can we say that fluency plays a role in his comprehension?

This is a child that I'd keep an eye on. We measure oral reading to help us build reading fluency, but really the ultimate goal is for a child's "internal" reading or silent reading to be fluent, fast, and efficient. Very rarely, a child's speech patterns can interfere with our ability to really measure fluency. If he's in second grade and reading 45 CWPM, he's reading at well below the first grade goal. Does he speak this slowly in normal speech? For now he may be able to comprehend the simple questions for second grade stories, but if his reading rate doesn't increase, I'd expect he will have problems in the future. So you're right, for now,  his poor fluency rate isn't impacting comprehension. But my bet is that it will in the days and months ahead.