As a guitar player, performer and teacher for more than 40 years, this is something I've dealt with for an extended period of time. I usually avoided teaching children below the age of 10 years of age, only because it was impossible for a long time to get a short scale guitar that was a quality I could even recommend. I tend to prefer medium scale guitars myself because I have an average to slightly larger than average hand size. The Gibson Byrdland was invented by Hank Garland and Billy Byrd specifically to play the extended reach chord fingerings typified by early 50s jazz legend Johnny Smith. It's easier to make a longer scale guitar playing tune than a short or medium scale instrument. Because I have long arms I've got most comfortable playing either a 335 style, a jazz box or even an explorer shaped guitar. I had a couple of dean Z guitars which are wonderful instruments and very comfortable to play either seated or standing. If the guitar case wasn't prohibitively large, I'd still play one on shows. Gretsch's are often 24 1/2 scale length which also work very well.