Speaking from my own experience, give him not a programming language, but either a game that includes a programming language, or a tool for making games that includes programming.

Game Maker is the biggest player in that market and used for tons of tiny one-off indie games, as well as lots of commercially successful and great games:

http://www.yoyogames.com/studio

Have a look at the showcase to see what kind of games have been made with it: http://www.yoyogames.com/showcase