4.5 yr old DD won't ask for help

[mebutnotme]

Is anyone struggling with this situation? My DD is bright and articulate and fiercely independent. But this is starting to become really hard to handle as her desire to be independent seems to be overwhelming her.
If she hurts herself/has got stuck getting dressed/can't open something etc she pulls away, kind of closes in on herself and either has a mini kind of tantrum or just refuses to show you injury/clothing that is stuck/what she can't open. No amount of talking/reasoning/cuddling/leaving alone to calm down seems to have any effect.
I feel like I have told her a million and one times that it's ok to ask for help, that we're here to help, that everyone needs help sometimes etc etc it just doesn't seem to sink in.
She starts school in 2 weeks and I'm concerned if she behaves like this there the teacher just won't have the time to try and help her when she's got 20 other kids to see to as well.
Is this normal at this age? Anyone else had similar experiences? Any tips on anything else I can try? Many Thanks

Have you tried explaining to her how it makes you feel when she is stuck and won't ask for help? I am a teacher and one of the kids in my class was a bit like this. We spent some time giving the kid examples of different situations and he had to identify if help was needed or not?

Have you tried asking her for help? Actions speak louder than words, so as well as telling her it's ok to ask for help, demonstrate it. Ask her to help you find something/open something etc and ask other people in her earshot e.g. 'DH I'm having a bit of trouble opening this jar, could you help me please?' and get DH/DM/DF to ask you as well.

That's what puzzles me holy is we do ask for help from each other all the time and we ask her to help us, like grabbing the nappies or clothes to dress her brother.
Yes mameulah have explained to her (about a million times) from every point of view.
She doesn't have a problem knowing if she needs help or not, she knows she needs help but doesn't want to ask for it and ends up getting really frustrated instead.
If we were the sort of parents that had never bothered with her or tried to help her I could understand it more, but we have always said that we are here to help if she wants us to help, but have also encouraged her to have a go at stuff and make her own decisions.
I don't know maybe you just can't get it right whatever you do.