How to get post id of first child of the same post type?

Question

Is there a function that will let me get the post id of the first child (of the same post type, not attachment)? I could always just run a loop via wp_query but that seems like overkill. :/

The goal here is to build a function that displays the first attached image. My function goes through the post_thumbnail and the attached images of the parent post fine, but stops working when the only images reside in child posts.

Edit: Here is my current working function. It works, but its not pretty. How can I clean it up?

/****************************************/
/* Grab first image of a post
/****************************************/  
function surfbird_grab_album_image() {
    global $post, $posts;

    $albumtitle =  get_the_title();

    if(has_post_thumbnail()) :
        return the_post_thumbnail('small');

    else :

        //Grab image if parent post has one
        $args = array(
            'order'          => 'ASC',
            'orderby'        => 'menu_order',
            'post_type'      => 'attachment',
            'post_parent'    => $post->ID,
            'post_mime_type' => 'image',
            'numberposts'    => 1,
        );

        $attachments = get_posts($args);
        if ($attachments) :
            foreach ($attachments as $attachment) {
                echo wp_get_attachment_image($attachment->ID, 'small', false, false);
                echo apply_filters( 'the_title', $albumtitle );
            }
        else :

            //Search the child posts and grab the first image we find
             $albumgroups = get_posts( array( 'post_type' => 'album', 'post_parent' => get_the_ID(), 'orderby' => 'menu_order', 'numberposts' => -1 ) );
            foreach( $albumgroups as $post ) :  setup_postdata($post); 

            $postID = $post->ID;
            $args = array(
                'numberposts' => 1,
                'order'=> 'ASC',
                'post_mime_type' => 'image',
                'post_parent' => $postID,
                'post_status' => null,
                'post_type' => 'attachment'
            );

            $attachments = get_children( $args );

            if ($attachments) {
                foreach($attachments as $attachment) {
                    return wp_get_attachment_image($attachment->ID, 'small', false, false);
                }
            }
        endforeach;
        wp_reset_query();   

        endif;

    endif;
wp_reset_postdata();
}

Answer 1

Instead of:

    $args = array(
        'order'          => 'ASC',
        'orderby'        => 'menu_order',
        'post_type'      => 'attachment',
        'post_parent'    => $post->ID,
        'post_mime_type' => 'image',
        'numberposts'    => 1,
    );

Use:

    $args = array(
        'order'          => 'ASC',
        'orderby'        => 'menu_order',
        'post_type'      => get_post_type($post),
        'post_parent'    => $post->ID,
        'numberposts'    => 1,
    );

You could also use post/page/etc or 'any'