Sound like what this kid needs is to take a couple of decent body checks to realise that it really doesn't hurt and is in fact alot more fun playing a physical game.
You might want to introduce this in practice where he feels more comfortable.
Have a full out practice where you have 2 lines, the coach dumps the puck in the corner and 1 player from each line races for the puck and the winner is the one who gets a shot on net. (This has to be done at full speed!!)
If he shys away from the contact in practice the you are only left with 2 options
1. humiliation (by this I don't mean anyting drastic, but you will have to be vocal in practice and single him out, you don't need to yell or anything but you will have to tell him in from of the team that this is not an acceptable way of competing)
2. Wait and hopefully he'll figure it out before getting hurt.
Another thing to keep in the back of your mind is that this kid might not even really like playing hockey and is only playing because it is "expected" of him. This is the case alot more than people realize
I for one believe that checking should be introduced by coached in practice at the Atom level, where players are a little more evenly matched in size.
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