I want to make a short with minimal talking and mostly "speaking without words" stuff and I want to use little kids. I'm a little afraid of how this would turn out, though. I mean, kids aren't exactly the best at taking orders and stuff. Any advice or previous experiences?

I made a film that starred a 9 year old a few years back, and it involved a lot of emotional scenes (tip: save those for the end of the day, when they're exhausted AND used to the camera). I shot it without sound on a Bolex, so I was able to coach the actress through a lot of scenes. "Look to your left, Jane, who do you see there? You don't know that guy, why is he in your kitchen?" etc.

She gave an amazing performance, and I'm afraid I believe I may only take a little credit for it.

I don't know if that's similar to what you're doing or not, but it's what I got...PM me if you'd like to see how it worked out, and I'll send you the link.

I don't know how things are in Utah, but here in LA you MUST have a studio teacher onset, and there are strict labor laws, governing how many hours a child can work, etc.

Mmm... . Yeah, kid actors. Been there, got the mug, and the t-shirt, and the glass, and the mouse pad...

Nowadays I try to avoid kid actors, there's only a hand-full that are good enough. Do many auditions until you make a choose.