Arrow keys problem in Pages

Hi there, I've been helping my low-vision brother use his now year-old iMac, and he has started having trouble using the arrow keys on his keyboard to move the cursor within a Pages document. It was working fine, but then after changing some settings and upgrading to Mountain Lion, he began having the trouble. He is using VoiceOver and also Zooms the screen. The right arrow key takes the cursor to the end of the text, the left arrow to the beginning, instead of moving the cursor one character at a time. I've noticed this is how the keys work when text is selected, but he says text is NOT selected. Had the same trouble in Mail, which was fixed by turning the VoiceOver Cursor off in the Visuals section of the VO Utility. Any ideas? I am hoping to get him to join your community and ask these things himself! thanks Nancy