I think understanding how the compiler reads the structure of code and the recursive nature of the statement definition is super important.
I have been volunteering time to help with kids / teenagers and my experience has been that getting them to understand the structure of the code - and thus identifying statements - and thinking in terms of statements was going a long way. (I actually explain the language capabilities through the 6 first statements).
When doing so and exercise in identifying the statements, Then there was no debate about whether or not you needed curly brackets or semicolon or how the indentation should look like and they understand (and smile at) a single expression statement bundled in a compound statement is to be cautious but that there is no magic about not having the {}.
Of course there are multiple ways to get to that understanding - So not saying this is the only way.