Background: he's just turned four and has had speech and language problems, although he's really improved lately. He barely talked at all (except at home) until about five months ago. He can now talk quite fluently but does still have some mixed up speech sounds which can sometimes make him hard to understand.
He's quite shy and will talk once he's warmed up, but will never say hello when people say it to him. He just sort of buries his face in my leg, or stares blankly in a way that looks quite rude, although it is just shyness.
I've never pushed it until now (he couldn't even say the word properly until five months ago).
But now he CAN say it, it's starting to feel like really bad manners that he's not saying it more. It is quite embarrassing when my lovely neighbour says hello for the umpteenth time and gets the rude stare in return. I'd be happy with just a smile and wave.
So, given his previous speech problems, should I be trying to coax him to say hello for the sake of politeness? And should I be bribing him? Or punishing him?
Socially he's fine in every way, says please, thank you and goodbye appropriately. It's just the greeting.