How many years of college is it to become a pediatric physical therapist?

Hey Lyndsey, all physical therapists go to seven years of school. Four for your bachelor's degree (this will only be four years if you're very judicious with your elective courses since PT school has several pre-requisites, otherwise plan for five years.) Then your doctorate of physical therapy degree will take three years.

Pediatric Physical therapy will be a specialization you can seek for while in school. Start by volunteering at clinics/schools treating children in order to get the required hours for graduate school (generally, 50-100 hours but it depends on the school.) While in your doctorate program you'll have the chance to pick clinical externships at locations specializing in pediatric care.

Optionally after graduation, you can complete an additional residency/fellowship after graduation to increase your knowldege. (Page 10 of this document lists the places currently offering pediatric residencies: http://www.abptrfe.org/uploadedFiles/ABPTRFEorg/For_Programs/ABPTRFE_2015AnnualResidency_FellowshipReport.pdf#search=%22pediatric%22 )

Here are a couple resources that may help:
1) APTA's section on pediatric physical therapy. The about us page has contact info for representatives in each state.
https://pediatricapta.org/about-pediatric-physical-therapy/leadership/state-leaders.cfm

2) The Centralized Application Service where you can see all of the PT programs in the country:
http://www.ptcas.org/DirectoryProgramsList/

Hi Lyndsey!

Here is a great site that will tell you much about what you need to know about this field:
http://www.wikihow.com/Become-a-Pediatric-Physical-Therapy-Practitioner

Let me know if and how this might help. Keep me posted. I would like to follow your progress.