ActionScript 3.0 :: Get UIComponent By Id Or Name, The GetChildByName Does Not Return Childrent Of Children

My application will load an xml file that has the name or id of a UIComponent. Later this will be used to set text or images.
 
This component could be on a panel or a panel in a panel, I am not familiar with flex but in javascript getElementByid would return the element wherever it is on the document (when called on the document). There is no get....Byid in fex and getChildByName does not look in children.For example

<mx:Text name="works" id="works"></mx:Text>    <mx:Panel>        <mx:Panel>            <mx:Text id="noWorkie" name="noWorkie" text="a test"></mx:Text>        </mx:Panel>    </mx:Panel>
this.getChildByName("works"); // worksstage.getChildByName("works"); // returns nullthis.getChildByName("noWorkie"); // returns null
  
Thinking of creating a getElementByid but has to be called from the top element, have no idea what the top element is.
For example this.root does not have a getChildren method to go through nor does stage. Guess I need to find the highest possible Container class starting with this.parent.There must be a "simple" way to do this but all examples I could find would not go from top level to lowest child as javascript would do in document.getElemetByid.