Speak Like a Child, the sixth album by American jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, which was recorded and released by Blue Note Records in 1968, features Hancock's arrangements for an unusual front line of Jerry Dodgion on alto flute, Peter Phillips on bass trombone, and Thad Jones on flugelhorn.

Critic Nat Hentoff described the album as an "impressive further stage in the evolution of Herbie Hancock as writer and player," saying it is characterized by a "singular quality of incisive, searching lyricism."

He felt this music didn't reflect the social turmoil of the late 1960s in America, that is riots and problematic economy.

Therefore, "Speak Like a Child" translates as "think and feel in terms of hope, and the possibilities of making our future less impure".

[5] In the liner notes, Hancock further points out his approach to the album, recalling his previous efforts: "What I was into then, and have been thinking about more and more, was the concept that there is a type of music in between jazz and rock."

For the most part, the harmonies in these numbers are freer in the sense that they're not so easily identifiable chordally in the conventional way.

Hancock says this way of thinking partially came from listening to Gil Evans, Oliver Nelson and Thad Jones.

"[5] More recently, Hancock commented "Once I made that album, there was no doubt in my mind that, when I organized my own band, it would be a sextet.

Miles Davis Quintet attempted to record the piece in January 1968, without producing a proper, finished take.