Cursor Randomly appears in handle of text box, not in box

Using Windows 10 on my laptop with Photoshop Elements 15.  When using the horizontal type tool to create a text box in a new layer, the cursor will randomly appear in the upper left handle, not in the text box.  Pasting in text results in a miniscule, unreadable font size.  The text is set for font size 18.  Closing the program and reopening it does not help. What causes this, and more importantly, how to I fix it?  Michaele