More important than the teacher is how you prepare for that teacher. You can't just throw your kid into lessons and expect them to succeed. You have to find a teacher who has a personality sympathetic to kids, who understands their attention span and is willing to inject at least SOME fun into what can become drudgery very quickly. I suggest starting with a pre-method, and there are lots out there; computer programs, by color, there's one called piano by number that has good results. You can see it at http://www.pianoiseasy.com Watch out for teachers who are dogmatists and disciplinarians. The ideal piano teacher for a little child should be somewhere between a game show host and a virtuoso.