Problem solving is a skill. Just like playing piano is a skill, or carpentry. We may think that having the tools to do these things makes it possible for us to do those things well - truth is it is up to the individual's ability. It is possible she can not problem solve too well her talents may not lie in that direction. Be not discouraged by it. She most likely will have strengths and weaknesses - we all do. Children do not develop equally in all areas at the same time. Think of it as a race. Reading, arithmetic, Problem solving, social skills, etc. The horses take off at the starting line, reading and memory take the lead for a while, then they slow down and arithmetic and social skills are nose to nose in the lead, then suddenly problem solving takes the lead by a full length, - back and forth, and so on and so forth. First grade means age 6 - that means she still has a long time to come into her own. I would speak to teacher and see what teacher says. There is a range to "average" and if teacher has been teaching for a while s/he will know if this is really a problem or not. If it is a problem teacher will most likely be more than willing to help you to figure out at home activities to "work on that". If its something that requires professional help teacher will know where you can find that help.

How did you get aware of this? I think the best way would be to give her more problems to solve at home, or are those not big problems for her? Here are some problem solving techniques. Some may not apply in your case: "1. divide and conquer: break down a large, complex problem into smaller, solvable problems. 2. Hill-climbing strategy, (or - rephrased - gradient descent/ascent, difference reduction) - attempting at every step to move closer to the goal situation. The problem with this approach is that many challenges require that you seem to move away from the goal state in order to clearly see the solution. 3. Means-end analysis, more effective than hill-climbing, requires the setting of subgoals based on the process of getting from the initial state to the goal state when solving a problem. 4. Working backwards 5. Trial-and-error 6. Brainstorming 7. Morphological analysis 8. Method of focal objects 9. Lateral thinking 10. George Pólya's techniques in How to Solve It 11. Research: study what others have written about the problem (and related problems). Maybe there's already a solution? 12. Assumption reversal (write down your assumptions about the problem, and then reverse them all) 13. Analogy: has a similar problem (possibly in a different field) been solved before? 14. Hypothesis testing: assuming a possible explanation to the problem and trying to prove the assumption. 15. Constraint examination: are you assuming a constraint which doesn't really exist? 16. Incubation: input the details of a problem into your mind, then stop focusing on it. The subconscious mind will continue to work on the problem, and the solution might just "pop up" while you are doing something else 17. Build (or write) one or more abstract models of the problem 18. Try to prove that the problem cannot be solved. Where the proof breaks down can be your starting point for resolving it 19. Get help from friends or online problem solving community (e.g. 3form, InnoCentive) 20. delegation: delegating the problem to others. 21. Root Cause Analysis" Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_solving#Some_problem-solving_techniques (eventually unclear terms could be explained through links on the source page)

Are you talking about math problems or problem solving in general? In math it is useful to chop the problem up in little bits, and trying to make it less abstract. Problem solving in general can be stimulated through a lot of imaginairy games.

Do talk to her teacher and ask a professional opinion. She may be different at home and at school. She may even not quite be ready to solve problems. That's ok. Work out small problems which have a reward for success. NOT candy! Consider a reward for effort that was well directed even if ultimately unsuccessful Do not ever, not even once, make her feel small or useless. Instead always catch her doing something right.