Crossword Genius

The older Roosevelt as a little boy (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

teddy

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'a little boy' is the definition.
'Teddy' can be an answer for 'boy'. I'm unsure of the 'a little' bit.

'the older roosevelt' is the wordplay.
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'older roosevelt' becomes 'eddy' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
't'+'eddy'='TEDDY'

'as' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for teddy that I've seen before include "A child's toy bear" , "Type of bear" , "Stuffed bear" , "Child's soft toy" , "plaything" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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