My son was about 22 months when he really started talking. At 18 months he was saying "maaa" for more (while signing more) and uh oh whenever he picked up my keys in the checkout lane at the grocery store and intentionally dropped them.

The real turning point for us was around 19 months when I finally buckled down and did some work. I made a book out of a photo album of familiar people and objects, including myself. He didn't know my name. Whenever someone asked, "Where's mommy?" he just smiled blankly in response. His eyes lit up whenever I entered the room and he cried for me often, so the connection was there, he just didn't understand that I -- or his favorite toys and other objects -- had labels. And he wasn't pointing at all, but more importantly in a way that implied curiosity about his world.

Anyway, this book was fairly simple. I took a photo of his ducky blanket, his toy truck, his pacifier, myself, blocks, books, a diaper, ect. We read the book at least five times a day because, lucky for me, the kid loved to be read to at the time. (Now we struggle some with that.) I chose about five photos to focus on and I learned the signs for those things. When we got to those pages I would point to the picture, say the word, sign the word and say it, and if possible point to the actual object and say the word again. Then I would hold the photo, for example, against myself while signing and saying "mom." I would ask, 'Where's mom?" and point to myself while signing mom when I got him in and out of his carseat. He had good joint attention, meaning he was able to move his eyes from the book to me and back again fairly easily. For other kids this requires an extra measure of patience. But I think they take in more than we think even when they aren't looking. After a few days I started taking his pointer finger and hand-over-hand pointing to objects and photos. I made his finger touch my chest while I repeated "mom, mom, mom" over and over again.

And one day  he just got it. He was sitting in a big chair in his room and I was on the floor. We had just read the book. He pointed to the chair, I said chair. He pointed to the blanket, I said blanket. He pointed to me, and HE said "ma." I cried.

He didn't start speaking in full sentences right away or anything, but his curiosity increased. A month later I remember having to make a list for our Area Education Agency Early Intervention Teacher of all the words he could say spontaneously and I was surprised at the number (around 10). By 24 -26 months the number had doubled and continued to grow steadily.

You can read a more emotional retelling of this same experience here.