[jazztele]

i have a 6 year old student now. He has a 3/4 size nylon string, and he does fine. He's not a tiny little kid, though, I'd say he's bigger than average.

anything smaller than 3/4 size that I've seen always has some really bad intonation issues, and rarely do these guitars (especially the acoustics) have much you can do to correct them.

as far as finding a teacher, before you even mention how old your little guy is, ask them how young they start a student. see what their reply is...if they say 10, chances are they've never had a student this small, and they'll do poorly.

the teacher should use some method book along with other supplemental items. A kid that young needs a lot of structure. See if the teacher will even consider 15 minute lessons for a few months--really.

also, as a teacher who teaches students ranging from 6 to 72 (!) i really like it if the parent(s) of the really little ones stay around during the lesson. I keep the door open and have a chair they can sit in and watch, and hopefully absorb some simple concepts along with their youngster, so it can be reinforced at home.

whatever you do, make sure the first thing every time you see this lil guy is ask him to show you what he learned at lessons this week. Ask him to teach you--the synthesis that's involved in showing someone else what you have learned is a higher order thinking skill that will very likely keep that info in his brain.