How old is she?
My main suggestion would be to have a conversation about it outside of the moment. It sounds like the specific way you are explaining it - don't say something you don't mean - isn't quite clicking with her. Is the yelled I'm sorry intended to be sarcastic? If so maybe talking about the idea of sarcasm? I'm also wondering if having specific examples of what might be appropriate things to say might help too.
3 1/2. I realize that that is very young--but I am pretty sure that she
does understand what I'm saying (and I've only discussed it with her when all is calm). And we've talked about different emotions & different ways of handling them (she is particularly fond of declaring that she's frustrated and needs to stomp her feet). I'm not sure why she does it. Sometimes she doesn't yell, but sort of sing-songs it, again obviously in an insincere way. I would almost say that she doesn't understand what "I'm sorry" means, except that she has demonstrated time & again that she gets it (e.g., when someone else has hurt her and she feels bad until they apologize).
Maybe there's just a disconnect--she is sorry; she wants to say she's sorry; but she's also still angry or amused, and I guess those feelings don't
have to be mutually exclusive.
