I feel like my toddler is behind

I have a 20 month old son and I am currently a SAHM. He’s a great kid, he shares well, follows simple directions (most of the time), is extremely loving and is very social given his circumstances. We just moved into a new house a few months ago, and it’s been great. He adjusted well, he has his own giant playroom that fits all of his toys. The neighborhood is full of kids.

Besides all of that, my son hasn’t started talking. He had started to say “Hi” and wave a few months back but stopped and hasn’t done it since. He can say “Mama” and “Dada” in context and can say “Nana” (Banana). He recently started shaking his head yes and no and is able to say “No thank you” but mostly the “No” portion. We have flash cards we go over with him, which he has a few favorites “Car” “Bus” “Fire Truck” “Police Car” “Banana”, but when we say the word to him I don’t feel as if there’s an attempt to repeat back to me. We have tons of books and open play toys, I’ve gotten him books on colors, and words and shapes and everything in between. He understands a lot when I talk to him, like “Throw that away in the trash”, “Do you want to give (our dog) a treat?”, ”Do you want to go in the car?/ Let’s go in the car”, “Let’s go outside!”. So I don’t think understanding words or connecting meaning to the words spoken are quite an issue for him, I just don’t know why he hasn’t said any real words. He does speak a lot, he talks to us, and to other people but it’s just toddler talk. He’ll point to pictures in a word book and will say something for each word but not the actual word.

Is this normal for his age? What are some things I can do to better help his speech? Is it really just dependent on the child themselves, repetition or am I missing something?

Important things to note:

He still uses a pacifier

He does get screen time, they’re all low stimulating shows that he has no problem walking away from, I usually put on things that he doesn’t really care about which draws him towards his toys or bringing me outside every 20 seconds.

He’s not around other kids very often, I’ve heard if they’re around other kids who talk it’s easier for them to pick up on it. This is probably the hardest thing for me to handle as I’ve tried everything to connect with other parents, I’ve approached other mothers at Target, and I’ve made a post in our home community where I know for a FACT there’s the other families with children on there, asking to get him together with some other kids in the neighborhood. Nobody responded. We plan on getting my son into some sort of sport next Summer after he turns 2 to have more kids and community to be around.