There are other personal rituals I do simply for sensory pleasure. They include rhythmic movements and sounds I make to myself. Researching my obsessions also makes me high that way. It fills my being with a sensual phenomenon, both serene and stimulating. One can be both severely autistic and very brilliant.
Intelligence is difficult to measure in an autistic person.
I have areas of very high ability, as well as areas of retardation. I'm adept at solving problems, visualisation, memory, recording and storing information, understanding written language, spelling, and spatial relations. Then I have savant gifts in writing, drawing, and musical aptitude. I have a genius IQ, yet in other areas, such as auditory comprehension, figuring out other people's minds, deciphering the human code of behaviour, and remembering a long set of instructions, and knowing what the people in a picture are doing, I am retarded. Society thinks that level of intelligence determines level of ability.