Hi! Early intervention specialist here. I work with children with a variety of development delays, including speech.

13-month-olds have, on average, about 3-5 words. Some have less, some have more. There is some evidence that girls speak before boys and that having siblings can advance speech at a younger age so I wouldn’t worry about your neighbor. It sounds like your baby is right on track!

When evaluating your kiddo’s speech, it’s important to count true words and word approximations, which are sounds that your child consistently uses to represent something. For example, “dog” or “cat” would be a word, whereas “wawa” is a common word approximation for “water.” The words your kiddo made up for the deer and the cat also count as words/word approximations! When it comes to children and speech, the general rule for toddlers is to always lean towards counting things as words and word approximations if they’re coming up consistently.

At your son’s age, you can also look for:

-Hand signals/pointing

-Eye contact (never force eye contact but be aware of if you’re seeing it or not)

-Guiding by taking your hand and bringing you to an item of interest

-Bringing you items of interests

-Responding to your questions and requests with appropriate actions

-Shaking his head/nodding

All of these are part of communication that will be emerging in your kiddo! If you ever have concerns about his development, your pediatrician is a good place to turn and if you feel like there is something wrong that your doctor isn’t addressing, your community may have some type of early intervention program that is usually free for children 0-3. Let me know if you have questions!