If the Hot Seat contestant is under 10 years old, they get to bring a parent down to assist them. The rules are that the child can ask the parent for as much help as they want, within the normal time constraints*, but they must be the one to give the host the letter choice, the text of the answer, and "final answer".
The best part was hearing her try to pronounce kinesiology.
Unless this has changed since we were there, the youngest person to win unassisted was 14 years of age and the yougest person to win assisted was 8 years of age (that would be my DD).
My DS, who is 11, also made it to the Hot Seat this past trip. He missed at 4,000 points. He later was number 1 on the leaderboard when they were looking for another contestant, but he had to decline due to the 30 day ineligibility rule once you sit in the Hot Seat.
* For those that may not know, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire - Play It! has a time constraint on each question. On each of the first 5, you get 15 seconds to answer. On the next 5, you get 30 seconds to answer. On the next 4, you get 45 seconds to answer. On the million point question, you get either 55 seconds or a minute. By the time I've gotten that far, my mind is way too scrambled to make a mental note of how much time they allot you.
If you use your lifelines well, you can extend the time on 3 questions by waiting until your time is nearly up and then asking for a lifeline. Depending on the lifeline, this can buy you up to an additional minute of think-time.
Rob