Development of mental giftedness is discussed in the context of normative situations occurring in the process of pre-school instruction. A normative situation is treated as a combination of factors, conditions and circumstances with regard to which society prescribes to the subject a specific line of action. The normative situation allows selective influence on structural components of preschoolers' mental giftedness: cognitive ability, creative and cognitive activity. Depending on the nature of normative situations arising in the instructional process, the educational system may have different effects on child giftedness, supporting or inhibiting child initiative and activity. It is possible to single out three types of rules regulating a pre-schooler's activity: prohibiting, positively normalizing and norm creating. An educational system comprising normative situations supporting children's cognitive initiative is favourable for effective development of child giftedness.