When he is holding his finger does he hold his arm up so you can stand up straighter or do you hunch over and hold his hand down near his waist? Recently went through this with my DD (who is obviously much younger) but someone said to me that if you hold their arm up their centre of gravity is higher up around their chest, but if you hold their hand down near their waist they have to really manage the balance using the strength in their legs. I know its draining but if you hold his hand down by his waist he has to do pretty much all the work of walking himself and will probably be off and running sooner. I did this with DD and within two weeks she was walking independently after dragging me round by the finger for weeks. I second the walker - one that you push along though, not a sit-in one. And if you have any playgroups near by get to as many as you can. There it doesn't matter if they only have a short attention span because there are lots of different toys and kids to play with.