Enhancing problem solving competency for Primary students is an important element in teaching and learning goals of “General Education Program: Mathematics” in Vietnam. In order to solve problem effectively, students need to be provided with discovery tools, including the strategy of identifying a pattern. This strategy often appears in American textbooks in form of “identifying a pattern” problems. However, in Vietnamese primary textbooks, the authors have not seen these problems. This report will present the results of the comparison of mathematics word problems in textbooks of Vietnam and USA from the perspective of pattern identification; design of some situations of teaching word problems in which analysis to identify patterns is an effective solution strategy; report the results of students’ experiments on solving problems, and survey students’ attitude on these problems. The report will indicate that using “identifying a pattern” problems is an effective tool to promote problem solving competency for elementary school students.