Build and roleplay ideas for a 10-year-old seer (psion)

[EluNailo]

Hi, so this is an idea that's been simmering in my mind for a while and I thought I'd see what suggestions others might have.

I want to make a 10-year-old (or the equivalent, if non-human) with seer powers, especially Object Reading and Sensitivity to Psychic Impressions. Clairvoyant Sense is just plain useful. Other powers allowing information gathering are also great for the character. The point here is to build a character who is useful in information-gathering, only optimized enough to not be a liability in combat, and fun to play assuming a party with at least one character/player willing to take care of this kid psychologically.
I was thinking also about the psionic focus and how I could roleplay it. Maybe the focus makes the child more resilient to otherwise traumatic experiences; without his focus he's just as determined, but fear, tiredness, and pain take a more central role. Suggestions for any additional consequences psionic powers could have on an otherwise normal kid are welcome. :)

Now:

Realistically, I'll need an attack power. I'll probably pick Matter Agitation. I'm not (personally) a fan of flashy attack powers that feel too much like spells. Something bursting into flame because of thinking too hard just feels like something a powerful mind could do.
Are there rules for children? I searched the SRD for general rules and couldn't find any, and so far I've been considering it like a permanent reduce person. I would really like to hear thoughts on this
Other powers I'll pick up in order to NOT DIE would be Inertial Armor, Vigor, and Share Pain. Are there any other powers or feats beyond Psicrystal Affinity I should pick up to avoid dying?

[ExLibrisMortis]

If you want to play something that is canonically a child in D&D, your best bet is to play a dragon--they have the age categories that support it. If you want to play a psionic dragon, you'll want to play a gem dragon, found in MM2. Emerald dragons are natural seers. They're Small as wyrmlings, so you'd effectively be an oversized sea-green winged reptilian kitten with extreme curiosity and clairsentience powers (though true manifesting requires Young age, which would put you at Medium size). You do eat 6 HD and 4 LA, but hey, got to be willing to make sacrifices.

[Mordaedil]

Pathfinder has rules on playing a child and we adopted it to our 3.5 game. It's a bit excessive in penalty, so you could argue that maybe one of them should be balanced out a bit.

You get the small size category with it's complimentary benefit of +1 AC and +1 attack bonus.
You gain a +2 bonus to dexterity.
You take a -2 penalty to strength and wisdom, the latter of which could be argued to be dropped (we took it, arguing it could be phased out by experience)

Now, the Pathfinder rules also limit what classes you can pick, but ignored that rule to allow me to play as a wizard, so you could easily do the same.

Work it out with your DM and make sure that the campaign is light-hearted enough that bringing a child on the adventure isn't too gruesome (I got mauled by a bear in our first combat session)