In a lot of way programming is at the level of the programmer. If your son likely to know that some problem he's solving is best accomplished implementation of Dijkstra's algorithm or that for some aspect of his program it might be sensible to use a bloom filter? No. But will this stop him from creating what he's trying to create? No.

Programming is a progression from being able to give logical directions and knowing some simple arithmetic and commands all the way to knowing all kind of obscure things from discrete mathematics and linear algebra, perhaps with some application of things from calculus, statistics, and trigonometry occasionally thrown in.

However, what will separate proper journeyman code from mush is design and organization, something which is not entirely in the realm of math. There's a reason that programmers talk a about design patterns and waste a lot of time naming things.

So in a sense the cognitive root and differentiator of journeyman code is more analogous to the root of an understanding of architecture and planning than math.

Keep in mind that many professionals (occasionally myself included) do not even write journeyman level code.